Zachary Campos blends some intriguing influences and inspirations on Profound Knowledge, from the musical to the metaphysical, timeless ideologies with more specific sonic eras. Anyone who cites Ezra Jack Keats and Rakim as influences, as well as Joy Division and The Beastie Boys, is someone prepared to soak up higher ideals, exacting philosophies and knowledge, profound knowledge at that, and mix and match it with musical styles from the streets, is going to be someone worth taking the time to check out.
So, fusing high art with the everyday, he gives us five tracks based on the sound of raw metal guitars with the low-end rumble and relentlessness of the motorik groove. The result is a series of sonic sermons juxtaposing high-brow introspection with everyday life’s more mundane struggles.
There are moments, for example, on Waves, where he moves into the altogether more gothic territory, or at least the stoic street vibes of Lou Reed. There are some beautiful contradictions on Spirituality, the song echoing the vibes of early Sisters of Mercy whilst deftly dealing with the idea of higher thoughts. And then there is the aptly named Calm, whose delivery has echoes of Red Hot Chilli Peppers playing a straighter, less funky hand.
As always, Zachary Campos expertly blurs boundaries and makes music along demarcations that you didn’t even know existed, ones where the grit of the streets meets the serenity of meditation, where academia meets the hustle of the day-to-day, and where post-punk meets futuristic inventions.
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[…] I suspect Josef K has loomed larger in my life than he has in that of most others. It wasn’t so much that I had to study Franz Kafka’s works at school, but more to do with my hankering for the music of the early eighties Scottish band named after the book’s protagonist. And here he is again, courtesy of the well-read Zachary Campos. […]