Zomby has long gone out of his way to appear mysterious and although his status as an unusual musician has been cemented over his last three releases, it’s not for the reasons he wants.
Like many of his peers the producer has done his best to stay anonymous, but he’s not been able to help himself on mediums like Twitter where he rivals Kanye in outspoken shit-talking. Zomby’s name might still be a secret, but his personality is anything but.
His fourth record With Love is similarly filled with contradictions. A 33-track double album, it originally presents itself as a behemoth, but as you enter its guts you realise just how accessible he’s made it.
You can draw loose narrative connections between the tracks if you really try, but the way the often haunting and alluring tracks fade in and out combined with their brief runtimes means the record feels like a shuffled album preview on the iTunes store. It’s a unique, disorienting and at times confusing experience.
He may fancy himself as a forward thinking producer, but un-abstracted nostalgic rave and garage influences litter this record. Zomby is a child of the nineties and intentionally or not, he is doing revivalist UK production better than almost anyone right now.
With Love is a record that is as confused about what it wants to be as Zomby is, which is a really interesting idea in itself.
Instead of following his uncatchable peer Burial deep into the avant-grade he’s made a record of powerful, controlled inconsistencies. It makes With Love an intriguing record to revisit for reasons beyond the often beautiful and arresting music that’s peppered through it.
