Switching up players for damn near ever release should have rendered Zs a confusing ensemble to get a grip on. It’s sound, though, is going to present more troubles than the variants in performers, though. Oddly, over the band’s existence, which sports a number of relatively short offerings ranking as EP’s if not necessarily proper full lengths, Zs is able to move around with whatever now constitutes noise while maintaining just the slightest hints of free jazz, as it moves ever closer towards free improvisation. Well, almost.

The title track, while not wholly representational of the album in its entirety, possesses a tightly wound composition calling for drummer, Ian Antonio and saxophonist Sam Hillmer to function as the rhythm player for significant sections of the work. It allows for the band’s two guitarists – Ben Greenberg  and Amnon Freidlin, this counting as his inaugural recording with the ensemble – to go in on extended work outs the sit pretty close with whatever is figured as the most experimental skronk in the six string world.

No, the guitarists don’t take bows to their instruments, but there is a healthful does of electronic exploration over the course of the album’s hour and change run time. New Slaves actually opens in relatively hushed tones while percussion remains in the background and guitar sounds – however manipulated – along with the flutter of the sax men working those valves fill the track.

Unsurprisingly, the disc is well balanced between these almost ambient explorations and full frontal, aural attack. Finding a band so adept at moving back and forth between the two extremes is rare. But rarer still is a group capacious of demonstrating its talents in such a fashion on a consistent basis over its discography. Zs is that group.

It’s hard to pinpoint who these recordings are for. But as long as there’s an avenue for the ensemble, whatever form it takes, to issue music, it’ll be of the highest caliber.

Live, Zs is a dervish, but an oddly constrained one with each player seated before a music stand, closely following along and bursting forth with appropriate avantisms when called upon. These performances usually mirror whatever release Zs is currently touring. And while the short set times, in the past at least, have left audience members wanting a bit more – if there’s a substantial crowd that is, it’ll be interesting to watch what the band does with this girthy disc when on stage.