Ruby Zoo were chosen as a showcasing act at the Philadelphia Music Conference in 2000, and have made it onto TV twice in Allentown, PA. "Disenchanted Monk", the very subject of this review, debuted at number 7 on Radio station 90.5's top thirty chart over in Flemmington, NJ. So as you can see, they are making a name for themselves over quite a wide area and were therefore either going to impress me a hell of a lot or totally destroy my faith in the US music industry!!!

First, the lyrics. How refreshing - Ruby Zoo have taken us back to the days when it was actually possible to write a song that lasted for five minutes without endlessly repeating the same lines over and over. And over. The lyrics are printed inside the CD case for those of you who can't hear a thing above the music and would like to know what's going on, and the only two tracks that are in any way repetitive are the last two - but I suspect the second of these is meant to be slightly tongue in cheek. More of that later.

The music is what really impressed me about Ruby Zoo. Listening to the album for the first time, I told myself how impressed I was by the synthesiser arrangements. Then I took a look at the promotional material sent through with the CD and realised that there isn't a synthesiser mentioned anywhere - I couldn't say whether they ever play a part in the act, but this is a band who put all their time and skill into letting rip with some serious guitar work. Again, how refreshing - these guys can actually play.

The music of Ruby Zoo is what I like to refer to as "missing link" music. Allow me to explain: Generally, each new sound that appears on the scene is so different from the last that you immediately get a huge bunch of people putting it down simply because it isn't what they're used to - a good example was back in the seventies when teenagers had just managed to get their heads around disco and were then verbally assaulted from all sides by punk, which was so unlike their idea of music that it must've sounded to a lot of them like complete crap. It's no wonder there was so much fighting between mods, rockers, punks and all the other crowds. Ruby Zoo manage to produce something in between established sounds, which works very well for a lot of people and is usually either a very clever gimmick on the part of the band or a lucky co-incidence.

Ruby Zoo describe their output as modern rock, which is a view I would wholeheartedly agree with. The influence of past years can clearly be heard, with plenty of thumping beats and bizarre wah-wah sounds reminiscent of days gone by, but they've cranked everything up a notch and added a modern overtone and far more up to date lyrics. As I listened to some of the tracks, I couldn't help thinking that if you took away the bass and the heavy lyrics, they could almost fit in as a thumping 80's TV cop show theme. The result is the sort of thing bands usually miss - something that will appeal to fans of both old style rock music and modern metal!!! It's not the sort of thing you generally hear in the charts these days - "Disenchanted Monk" will probably appeal more to people who know what they want and go straight to a particular section of the record store. This is a shame, as music like this could quite easily become mainstream if wider audiences were given a chance to listen to it. I like it, guys - keep up the good work.

But hey, what were you on when you wrote that last track - "The forest in G Major"? I quote from the lyrics:
"I like wood. Wood is good. They have wood in Hollywood..."
Um, yeah right. And then you start talking about Lumberjacks, and just when I was wondering if anybody had thought of the obvious Monty Python connections, up comes the backing track: "He's a lumberjack and he's OK, he sleeps all night and he works all day..."
I almost laughed until I cried. Excellent way to end the CD.

http://www.rubyzoo.com