Zelienople: Everything is Simple

One of the biggest mysteries in this life is that Zelienople remain an elusive force.

Since the turn of the century, some of the most beautiful soundscapes to come from alternative culture have been from the enigmatic Chicago veterans who, on the back of their landmark 2020 release Hold You Up, have been a band that has grown stronger with age. This is where the mystery lies, for they should be adorning far more record collections around the world than they do. For those locked into the world of Zelienople, well, it feels very much like a privilege.

Consisting of vocalist / guitarist, Matt Christensen, bassist / clarinetist Brian Harding and percussionist Mike Weis, on their highly anticipated new album, Everything is Simple, the formidable three-piece welcome Monastral records founder and multi-instrumentalist, P.M. Tummala, and Eric Eleazer (Fender Rhodes, synthesizers) to the line-up.

Since Hold You Up, the members of Zelienople have slaved away at other endeavours, mainly in a solo capacity. Christensen’s endless stream of solo releases is one of the most mesmerising experiences in the orbit of new music, and with his output in 2024, the canvass has become darker in tone which spills over on Everything is Simple.

Visual Space: In Conversation with Luggage’s Michael Vallera

Christensen’s recent solo album, Driver, is one of his most candid. Naked with dread, the lyrics, like an icy pulse that suggest all is not okay; fact and fiction seemingly contaminated like a wicked brew that’s almost too difficult to swallow.

Tummala’s introduction to the band is equally vital, and alongside Eleazer the pair add new layers of intrigue to this already bourgeoning saga of sound. The shift is clear from the off with Holy Rollers. The heady opening track that is essentially split in two parts: the first, a chorus of droning synths and meandering interplay, with the second seeing Weis’ percussion and Harding’s whining bursts of clarinet cascading to new spaces within the Zelienople enclave.

Hold in My Hands follows and is archetypal Zelienople. Like sinking slowly into a hot bath, it’s the kind of atmospheric slowcore that sees the band at their intoxicating best. Meanwhile, In This Town Again sees Weis’ dynamic use of percussion exposing new dimensions for the band and it’s largely informed by his wonderful 2022 Monastral release, Ring the Bell for the 10,000 Forgotten Things. Alongside Harding’s bass lines, the song isn’t a world away from kindred spirits and fellow Chicago post-rock legends, Labradford, as Zelienople conjure up wisps of static that jolt you into an alternative universe.

Remaining in the Monastral thread, and Wishing Wells feels like something that flourished from Christensen’s collaboration album with Tummala, Yellow Works. Stirring synths and languid guitars drift from the speakers like fairy dust, as Christensen professes to being stuck inside a wishing well, once again leaning into the themes that have dominated his recent solo works.

Santa Chira, an instrumental spearheaded by Tummala on vibraphone and Eleazer on synths leads into Orange Capsule – the song Talk Talk never wrote. A song where the protagonist weaves in and out of a distorted reality largely brought about by narcotics, once again Tummala’s vibraphone alongside Weis’ syncopated rhythms splinter like shards of glass into the flesh.

So too the title track, which sees Zelienople exploring the same undertow Christensen echoes during the song. “It may seem like a fucked up time / It may seem like that all the time / It may seem like nothing at all,” he sings with a fragility that almost cracks under the weight. It’s this state of confusion and obfuscation that maintains the anxieties that have always underpinned Christensen’s songs.

Hello Body: An Introduction into the World of Matt Christensen

In many ways, finishing with Make the Whole Town Decay is fitting. A skeletal, folk-inspired jam that could have been inspired after a weekend rifling through Neil Young’s discography, Christensen adds his own embellishments with narratives that reach darker corners. The track title and the album’s artwork summarising its aims.

Everything is Simple sees Zelienople maintain the kind of juxtapositions that have always made their music so enthralling. It’s an album made on the fault lines, illuminating the fragile nature of life. There’s a nervous energy and aloofness running through these songs, backed by instrumentation that excavates to the kind of emotional depth Christensen’s songs command.

With the addition of Tummala and Eleazer, the vague space Zelienople have always operated in becomes deeper and wider with Everything is Simple. In many ways, it’s an album that mirrors these times, and I can’t think of another band who could explore this uncertainty as well as Zelienople.

Everything is Simple is out now via Shelter Press. Purchase from Bandcamp.