ZOFFF

Explosive reunion of Levitation guitarists Bic Hayes and Terry Bickers.

Zofff are a four-piece psych/kraut/cosmic/ whatever improvising unit based out of Brighton. While each member has a long history in the indie/ experimental underground, the band’s most prominent player is guitarist Bic Hayes, previously of Cardiacs, Dark Star and Levitation. While these groups pushed the songwriting envelope,

Zofff have cast off predetermined arrangements altogether, with each performance a unique exercise in spontaneous composition. IV captures them in fierce form, producing non-stop exploratory music that constantly fizzes with ideas yet is surprisingly cohesive. But what really makes this special is the presence of ex-Levitation man Terry Bickers, the first time that he and Hayes had played together since 1993. The album plunges headfirst into a stretch of driving trance rock, with skittering, echoplexed guitars and contrails of cornet colouring the edges. The music breaks down into Floyd-ish ambient drift before the rhythm builds again, luminous twinkles of synth against a glammy shuffle beat. Inevitably, there are magical moments when the interplay can’t help but recall Levitation, and the album climaxes in a spirit of anarchic overload.