Zilla is a side project for Michael Travis, drummer in
the String Cheese Incident, who is joined by Aaron Holstein (playing guitars and keyboards) and
Jamie Janover (playing hammered dulcimer and electric kalimba, among other instruments) on this "100% Live 100% Improvised" album. The key instruments turn out to be
Janover's, if only because they are the most unusual. One simply does not hear a hammered dulcimer played as the lead instrument over a rock rhythm section, playing extended instrumentals (not to mention a kalimba), and the sound has considerable charm. As might be expected, the pieces lack structure and tend to ramble, with the musicians playing fast and intensely at some moments, then relaxing into becalmed passages. But the unusual instrumentation makes for consistently interesting listening. ~ William Ruhlmann