Heady bill brings psych and prog powerhouses to UC Theatre
BERKELEY -- A summit of two of heavy music's most forward-thinking acts, hypnotic avant-doom trio Om are joined by celebrated synth-powered instrumental duo Zombi at the UC Theatre Monday night.
Initially formed by the rhythm section of late lamented South Bay doom-metal trio Sleep five years after that band split up in 1998 -- a disastrous major-label fiasco that shelved Sleep's now legendary hour-plus opus, Dopesmoker, led to the band's dissolution -- bassist-vocalist Al Cisneros and original drummer Chris Hakius would create a meditative and minimalist style of extended epics that proved just as brain-scrambling as Sleep's lumbering Sabbath worship. Om quickly established itself as a potent psych power duo with Variations on a Theme, its 2005 debut recording on SF-based Holy Mountain Records.
The duo's new music paralleled Sleep's fascination with extended song forms and patience for gradually expanding on riffs through repetition. Om actually revisited musical ideas from both Dopesmoker and earlier effort Sleep's Holy Mountain, but with the instrumentation pared down to Hakius' metronomic pulse and Cisneros' heavily overdriven bass and chanted vocals. The duo would raise the intensity of their cosmic vibrations on their follow-up release, Conference of the Birds, capturing the languid interstellar pilgrimage of Pink Floyd's early nugget "Set the Control for the Heart of the Sun" on "At Giza" before a final, endorphin-releasing climax powered by Cisneros' thunderous Rickenbacker bass drone.
Cisneros would move away from the epic Sabbath-meets-early-Floyd incantations heard on Om's first three albums following the departure of Hakius. Grails drummer Emil Amos took his place behind the kit as the group broadened its sound to include flute, cello, and Indian tambura as well as the addition of guitarist/vocalist Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe (of Lichens fame) for God Is Good, the group's first for indie imprint Drag City Records.
On Advaitic Songs in 2012, the band stretched its sonic envelope even further, with tabla, sampled chants, and a full string section adding a new level of spiritual resonance to the band's unique riff science. While Om has yet to release a follow-up to that effort, it has toured with new member Tyler Trotter (who joined in 2018) and released a number of live albums, including a limited archival recording of an early duo performance at Amoeba Records from 2007 featuring the original duo issued by Holy Mountain that came out this year.
For this show at the UC Theatre in Berkeley Monday night, Om is joined by Pittsburgh, PA-based heavy prog duo Zombi. Founded around the turn of the millennium, the band takes its name from the Italian title to George Romero's iconic film "Dawn of the Dead" -- the Italian progressive-rock group Goblin, who did the music, were a major influence. Bass/synthesizer player Steve Moore and drummer/synth player A.E. Paterra combine the driving rhythm section work of bands like Rush and Yes with the synth and sequencer pulse made by John Carpenter for the soundtracks to his movies "Halloween" and "Escape From New York" for their eponymous self-released debut recording in 2001.
By the time Zombi issued it's second effort Cosmos for Release Entertainment in 2004, the duo had amped up Paterra's kinetic drumming as a propulsive force behind their expansive space-rock epics. Finding kindred spirits in post-rock experimentalists like Trans Am and San Francisco's own the F--king Champs, Zombi logged thousands of miles of road work during the decade, taking stages across the country with their arsenal of vintage keyboards and a DIY laser light show that added to the onstage atmosphere.
Signed to noted independent metal label Relapse Records for their second full-length Surface to Air in 2006, the band would gradually evolve their propulsive sound, introducing elements of krautrock and Giorgio Moroder's Italio space disco for their 2011 album Escape Velocity. By that time, both members had begun to release solo material, with Paterra delving deeper into sequencing and ambient drones under the moniker Majeure and Moore indulging in everything from his dance-oriented projects Gianni Rossi and Lovelock and a string of acclaimed soundtracks to new horror films including the OSTs for "Cub," "The Mind's Eye," "Mayhem" and "Bliss."
While Zombi took an extended break from releasing new material after Shape Shift in 2015, it has been exceptionally active since the pandemic began. The duo issued 2020 to wide praise, which was followed up by the self-released ambient soundtrack EP Evans City and last year's stunning Liquid Tensions EP. This past summer, the group released Zombi and Friends, Vol. 1, an eclectic collection of covers made remotely during the pandemic that features the duo collaborating with players from the Sword, Trans Am and Pinkish Black on shockingly faithful covers of soft-rock classics by the Doobie Brothers, Neil Diamond, the Eagles, Eddie Rabbit, the Alan Parsons Project and Dionne Warwick
Om with Zombi
Monday, Oct. 3, 8 p.m. $25
UC Theatre
