Thee Silver Mt Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band

With a trimmer new line-up, Montreal's Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra return with a snarlier sound that once again serves as an invigorating reconstruction of folk and rock idioms with punk spirit. Down from a septet to a quintet, SMZ have lost strings (a cello and a guitar, to be exact) and gained an explosive new drummer in David Payant. If the new configuration were ever tentative, it's not evident on Kollaps Tradixionales, which is as mighty as any recording by the band to date. The interplay between Efrim Menuck's sinister guitar tones and the strings of Sophie Trudeau, Jessica Moss and Thierry Amar conjures a wondrously beautiful noise on slow building songs like "There is a Light" or the classic rock riff-led suite that is "I Built Myself a Metal Bird/I Fed My Metal Bird the Wings of Other Metal Birds." As always, the unique rhythm of Menuck's vocal phrasing bends and blurs language, infusing thoughtful lyrics with an unhinged urgency. And with traces of traditional old world folk (most perceptibly "Greensleeves" and "Scarborough Fair") drifting throughout, the record is an unsteadily mesmerizing affair that swells with dynamic authority. Filled with empowering hope, Kollaps Tradixionales is a pure, righteous document of a Silver Mt. Zion.