Time Zero

Relaps is another chapter in the archival recordings of Univers Zero. It documents concert recordings of two different lineups during the band's transitional years, and the ones that presaged their lengthy - though gratefully temporary - hiatus from recording and touring between 1986-1999. There are four shows and two different lineups of UZ on display here. First up are a pair of performances from a quintet version of UZ that includes Denis on drums, new keyboardist Jean-Luc Plouvier (who replaced Andy Kirk, original keyboardist and one of the band's two composers), Dirk Descheemaekeron reeds and winds, bassist Christian Genet, and cellist and alto saxophonist André Mergenthaler (aka André Mergen)…

Nine Below Zero started life in South London during 1977, in the midst of the punk rock boom in England – but their sound and inspiration were so totally counterintuitive to what was going on in punk rock that they scarcely seemed to be part of that movement, apart from their extremely energetic attack on their instruments. Rather than noise for its own sake or auto-destruction, their inspiration lay in classic Chicago blues (though John Mayall's early music and that of the Who and the Kinks from early in their careers also figured into their sound). Dennis Greaves (lead vocals, guitar), Peter Clark (bass), and Kenny Bradley (drums) – soon joined by Mark Feltham (who actually replaced a teacher of theirs who had sat in on the early gigs) on vocals and harmonica – were schoolmates and friends who shared a love of blues; all had all come into the world in the early '60s, and might well have resigned themselves to having missed the boat for the British blues revival by virtue of having been born in the midst of it. Instead, they reached back to that era and found themselves pegged as part of the "mod revival" in the midst of the punk era.