ZERO POINT ENERGY
Tilted Planet
Danger Collective Records
There’s a palpable urgency coursing throughout Zero Point Energy’s kinetic and inviting debut album Tilted Planet. Formerly based in Atlanta, where they helmed two-fifths of the beloved but now defunct band Warehouse, the now Brooklyn-based duo of Genesis Edenfield and Ben Jackson trade careening guitar riffs and lead vocals in a thrilling back-and-forth. The duo reflect on literal and esoteric transformations across 12 resonant tracks, posing questions about the self and its resilience. It’s as engaging as it is unflinching, and ultimately, a document of two close friends rediscovering the anchoring spark of their magical collaboration.
Following the dissolution of Warehouse in 2016, both Jackson and Edenfield pursued their own solo projects. Ben moved to Brooklyn and started playing shows as Tilted Planet, while Genesis stayed in Atlanta, pursuing painting and slowly releasing his own music as Rug. “Those projects were both attempts to reclaim a little personal agency after a five-way collaborative band,” says Jackson. “We realized we prefer a little bit of collaboration.” When Edenfield moved to New York City in 2018 after having learned how to play guitar, the two reignited their musical partnership. After work, they’d patiently hone material they’d written separately and merge them into a cohesive, synergetic whole. Four years of this unhurried but diligent routine resulted in Tilted Planet, which was eventually recorded in Brooklyn with engineer Matt Labozza (whose credits also include Palm and Palberta), and with Jimmy Sullivan (bass) and Nick Corbo (drums).
For Jackson and Edenfield, the practice of making music together proved to be a grounding force in their lives: an oasis amid personal upheaval and uncertain futures. “The only thing that has been steady in our own lives is this interest in keeping this band going,” says Jackson. “Zero Point Energy feels like a family type of space, where you're creating this microcosm of a community. No matter what's going on in our lives, we keep this space open for us.” Their first collaboration was the rocker “Bend,” which finds Edenfield singing, “What was it all for / Or when will it end / Know it’s a question / That I can’t answer.” His unmistakable voice snarls over rollicking, oscillating guitars. “This was one of the first times I collaborated with someone after Warehouse,” he says of the track. “I was so full of self-doubt but it was written so quickly and naturally. That song feels like the bridge between Warehouse and this band.”
If that early track was the link between their old band and their new songwriting outlet, the lush and immersive lead single “Over My Head” serves as the north star for Zero Point Energy’s sound. Where Warehouse boasted a volatile energy complete with guttural vocals, here, Jackson and Edenfield use a softer and more pop-minded palette that evokes The Clientele and Stereolab. On the shimmering, shoegaze-inflected track, Edenfield sings of unrealistically idealizing a romantic partner, “Show me what love is / With just a glance / And a touch of your hand / And I will wait for you.” It’s yearning and evocative. Elsewhere, Jackson’s voice and zipping guitars add pep to single “All That You Want.” It grapples with failing to be the person you’d aspire to be as he sings, “And it brings / And it gives / And it’s all your life / But it costs.”
The galvanizing and mesmerizing arrangements on Tilted Planet mirror the growth Jackson and Edenfield experienced as lyricists. The two unlocked a striking emotional clarity and specificity throughout. Take single “Closer To You,” in which Edenfield wrote about how his partner’s coming out gave him the courage to come out as well in 2022. There, Jackson’s heightened and shattering guitar solo buoys Edenfield’s voice after he sings, “Closer to me / Is all I was trying to be / When I said I think I’m the same.” He explains the track: “I wanted to write a trans anthem, where a young person going through the same thing could hear it and be like, ‘hell yeah.’” Elsewhere, in the raw and cathartic single “Disintegration,” Edenfield details betrayal and the necessary dissolution of a relationship with a loved one. These are lucid, grounded songs that don’t hide behind abstraction or equivocation.
Tilted Planet is a testament to rebirth, for Jackson and Edenfield reinventing their musical partnership after the dissolution of their old band. It’s a transformative wrestling for a sense of wholeness that occurs throughout the LP. On opener “I’m Receiving Downloads,” which alludes to reincarnation and a soul returning to Earth, Edenfield sings, “If the world seems so Incomplete / Maybe it’s time / To come back again.” For Zero Point Energy, the entire point of the band to Jackson and Edenfield is to stay present with each other and have something to hold onto.
“We've known each other for so long now that we've gone through multiple phases of everything going away and coming back,” says Jackson. “We met in a different city when we were students and we've moved cities, had multiple jobs, romantic partners, ups and downs, and mental health struggles. Every ebb and flow.” Edenfield concurs. “This is one of our longest friendships,” he says. “The fact that we have such a connection means I am also more of a fan of this music just because I'm a fan of us. This band feels like it’s always gonna be there. Zero Point Energy is like a lifetime project for us.”
