District Five delving into a glut

Fresh from Stone Pixels Records comes “Glut”, the latest collection of pieces from Zurich’s District Five, their fourth. “Glut”, the band points out, can mean “excess” in English but also “embers” and “fervour” in German.

Named after the part of Zurich where they all came together ten years ago, District Five come across more like a community event than a conventional band. Consisting of musician and theoretician Tapiwa Svosve (sax, synth, vocals), Paul Amereller (perc, vocals), Vojko Huter (guitar, synth, vocals), Xaver Rüegg (bass, vocals), the individual members have plenty of outside projects on the go. These range from theatre music to free form jazz and the noisier side of rock, all of which leave their traces in District Five’s communal sound.

“Glut” is a multi-facetted affair with plenty of hidden depths that slowly reveal more of themselves with each new listen. Thus, the laid-back and maze-like “Seed” with its softly insistent vocal performance from Svosve, is followed immediately by the explosion of fury at the beginning of “Company Man” which segues unexpectedly into a contemplative middle part that features a minimalist sax solo before ending in an all-out crescendo of noise. “Strict Circumstance”, meanwhile, is described by the band as a “tender pop song describing the wreckage of the capitalist present”, whilst “Push” sets an emotion-charged spoken word contribution from the US-American rapper/poet/actor Saul Williams to a skittering instrumental track that playfully dips in and out of dissonance and rhythmic craziness.

District Five
Stone Pixels Records