True Zebra – 123 (CD Album – Wool-E-Discs)

Genre/Influences: Rock-wave, electro-wave, EBM.

Background/Info: True Zebra is a Belgian solo-project driven by Kevin Strauven (who’s also involved with The Juggernauts). True Zebra self-released 3 albums in between 2012 and 2016. This official debut opus features tracks taken from the previous albums.

Content: Kevin Strauven is actually working on a complete new album so this kind of ‘best of’ is a good way to get introduced to his eclectic sound universe. The songs are covering different influences, which resulted in a somewhat versatile work moving from minimal electronics to rock-wave to EBM. The vocals are rather sweet-like.

+ + + : I definitely prefer the electronic-driven songs, carried by noticeable vintage synth layers. The minimal-like “Under Control” is a great piece of music, which reminds me a bit to Crash Course In Science. In a more EBM-vein “Transition” is carried by a solid bass line. Last, but not least I also have to mention the somewhat groovy-minded “Not Like Him No”.

– – – : I don’t have anything against diversity, but the different influences don’t always fit with each other. You get the impression to hear a band clearly in search of its sound identity. The transition from one song till another is sometimes abrupt. The rock-wave style (like featured on “The Silence”) can’t convince me at any single moment.

Conclusion: I should think that for True Zebra the best is yet to come. I sincerely hope this artist will mainly focalize on the electronic side of his work, which is promising and revealing a few cool cuts.

Best songs: “Under Control”, “Transition”, “Happen”, “Not Like Him No”.

Rate: (6½).

Artist: www .truezebra .com / www .facebook .com /truezebraofficial

Label: www .wool –e –shop .be / www .facebook .com /woolediscs

Since you’re here …

… we have a small favour to ask. More people are reading Side-Line Magazine than ever but advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. And unlike many news organisations, we haven’t put up a paywall – we want to keep our journalism as open as we can. So you can see why we need to ask for your help.

Side-Line’s independent journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we want to push the artists we like and who are equally fighting to survive.

If everyone who reads our reporting, who likes it, helps fund it, our future would be much more secure. For as little as 5 US$, you can support Side-Line Magazine – and it only takes a minute. Thank you.

The donations are safely powered by Paypal.