(Hopefully) coming soon to a theater near you, ZZ is the Parisian duo of Married Monk?s Etienne Jaumet and Herman Dune?s Cosmicneman, with guitar assistance from members of Turzi, Dune and Friction. Their debut is inspired by the horror movie soundtracks of George Romero and John Carpenter and fans of confrontational artistes like Suicide, Can, and Silver Apples or Romero?s soundtrack favorites, Goblin will, pardon the pun, gobble this up. Your experience will be greatly enhanced if you enjoy this music late at night in the dark inside a pair of headphones. Just let your mind?s ?third eye? imagine all kinds of nasty, horrible, frightening shrieks in the night as the shitstorm of terror whirrs by. Oh, and being an electronic/techno project, you can dance to it, too!

The album opens with synthy sirens and a throbbing backbeat behind a proto ?Peter Gunn?/?Planet Clair? riff on the EP teaser, ?Driving This Road Until Death Sets You Free,? an immediate harbinger of the terrors to come. It?s also an effective soundtrack cue to a white-knuckled race with the devil. Like their mentors, Silver Apples, the drum ?n? synth duo squeeze a myriad of elaborate sounds out of their instruments, although unlike Simeon and the late Danny Taylor, ZZ eschew the fractured pop fairy tale to create the first great horror film soundtrack of the 21st century. The title track marries a motorik, Neu! backbeat with a bouncy Kraftwerk riff that should certainly please Depeche Mode and OMD fans.

The infectious ?Before Night Falls? will have you shaking your sacroiliac on the dance floor, while the adrenalin rush of ?Psychic Harmonia 2? is perfect for ?fahren, fahren, fahren auf der Autobahn.? Overall, it?s a frightfully fun listen ? just add fake blood and don your dancing shoes and you?ve got yourself an instant monster mash. If somebody would only film some images to accompany these sounds! 7/10 -- Jeff Penczak (16 July, 2008)