Zach Hill - Face Tat

If the music Zach Hill makes is any indication of what it is like inside his head, someone needs to give the man a Valium. On ‘Face Tat’, his second solo album, he is more a curator of hyperactive noise than a song writer. From the opening track heavily processed guitars, keyboards, weird throbbing sounds, electronic squeals and lo-fi vocals fire out from all directions. There is little respite from these waves of sound effects across the whole record making it quite difficult to digest on first listen.

Zach Hill is still probably most famous for his manic polyrhythmic drumming with the band Hella and more recently Marnie Stern, and his talent behind the kit does shine through on many tracks here. But ‘Face Tat’ is not just a vanity project to show off his prowess with the sticks. It does contain some good songs and collaborations with the likes of No Age, Prefuse 73 and Devendra Banhart. Admittedly the production is so dense that the contribution these guests make is often smothered under the colourful craziness of Hill’s vision. The album is also not a showcase for his lyrics as it is almost impossible to make out anything he says.

‘House of Hits’ is a stand out track but it was written by Nick Reinhart, who provides guitar for about half the tracks on the album. The main instruments are given more space on it and haven’t been completely warped by effects or processing. But really it doesn’t belong on this album. Hill and Reinhart also record as the duo bygones and ‘House of Hits’ would fit perfectly on their album ‘by-’, a record that is more consistent and contains more accessible and addictive songs than ‘Face Tat’.

However, if you do put the time in you can get quite a bit out of ‘Face Tat’. You could spend days just trying to understand how he made some of the noises that fly past at a million miles an hour. And it is great fun hearing him rock out with No Age on ‘Total Recall’ and ‘The Sacto Smile’.

For some, the relentless torrent of sound might be a bit much and I would not recommend listening to this album while hungover, it would be like pure cocaine for your headache. I considered suggesting using it as work out music but I would hate for DIY to be held responsible for giving someone a heart attack. This is definitely music for those able-bodied enough to keep up with the pace of the beat that Zach Hill lives to.