Zu (IT) + SLUG MASS

Italian sonic insurgents Zu have long stood at the fault lines of genre and chaos. With a discography that spans more than two decades, their return is less a comeback than a seismic inevitability. Hailing from Rome’s experimental underground, Zu have built a reputation as one of the most fearless and unpredictable forces in contemporary music. Their core—Luca T. Mai (baritone saxophone, synths), Massimo Pupillo (electric bass, acoustic guitar), and Paolo Mongardi (drums, percussion)—operates like a single organism, one that mutates rather than evolves, refusing the safety of repetition. Zu’s sound is elemental: jazz, metal, prog, punk, and industrial all collide in forms that feel sculptural, abrasive, and ritualistic. It’s a band that treats genre as raw material, melting it down and forging it into something singular and volatile. Each record, each live show, feels like a new invocation—unpredictable, uncompromising, and always on the edge of collapse. They’ve collaborated with the likes of Mike Patton, Mats Gustafsson, and Nobukazu Takemura, yet their identity remains unshakably their own—resolute, cerebral, visceral. From the cryptic minimalism of Jhator to the scorched-earth aggression of Carboniferous, Zu’s output reads like a map of the avant-garde’s outer territories. Now, with Ferrum Sidereum, they stretch the limits again—another chapter in a discography that never settles, only spirals outward.

https://youtu.be/dE-CH2hhUaA

Support: SLUG MASS SLUG MASS entered Malmö’s experimental canon with Planck Mass—a 19-minute slab of doom-jazz-noise that split listeners down the middle. Some craved more of its bone-rattling density. Others, stunned by what one described as “a torturous, pulsating traffic accident in slow motion,” were surprised to find the rest of debut album property leaning into something groovier, almost playful. Their second album, observer, landed this September, led by Tar Propulsion—a motorik drift through deep space, propelled by Ellen Pettersson’s weightless, otherworldly flugelhorn. Live, SLUG MASS shapeshift between tectonic doom dirges, explosive riff cascades, and moments of glacial stillness laced with abstract jazz spirals. You’ll also hear them on Malmö 2025, För Vidare Lyssning’s collage of the city’s experimental undercurrent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2Y7a9pA8ag&t=1s

RIYL: Fire! Orchestra, John Zorn, Aluk Todolo, Tomahawk, SUMAC, Dälek, Oxbow, Shora, Mike Patton, The Necks, Supersilent, Faust, Sun Ra, Noise Unit, Can, Spunsugar, TRUE GRIT.