2008 has been another very busy year
for John Zorn. Along with
more contributions to his Filmworks
series,
composing some more volumes to his Book
Of Angels (Volume
10 of which was reviewed by yours truly a few months back) and The
Dreamers, he's
managed to squeeze in the time to record with his Moonchild trio and
release The
Crucible at
the end of the year. The Moonchild project comprises of drummer Joey
Baron, Secret
Chiefs 3 man
and frequent Zorn
collaborator Trevor Dunn (who's performance here more than atones for
his involvement in the disastrous Save
Me From Myself,
also reviewed here by me) and, most notable to outsiders, Mike
Patton. The
Crucible is
the polar opposite of the more sedate The
Dreamers,
comprising of Joey Baron's almost tribal drumming, Dunn's thick,
heavily distorted, metal-inspired bass grooves, and Patton's vocals
and Zorn's atonal free jazz soloing battling for dominance. It's
Patton's perverse version of scat-singing that'll hit you first,
mind. The man screams, growls, babbles, and makes the sort of noises
that cause the listener to marvel at the range of the man's voice
box. It'll all sound like a load of noise to most, of course, but
then, how many of you thought that when hearing, say, Nattens
Madrigal for
the first time?
And
indeed, for anyone remotely into challenging music there's much to
love in The
Crucible. Is
John Zorn's attack
on the saxophone really all that different to what Kerry King does
with his guitar? (John
Zorn happens
to be capable of playing more than one solo, mind). And even when it
seems like it's falling apart, Trevor Dunn keeps it all together,
keeping this firmly in the realm of music,
not the mindless flailing some people would have you believe it is.
And I dare anyone not to crack a smile at 9
x 9,
sounding like Led
Zeppelin played
through a free jazz filter. Indeed, even at it's darkest,(Patton
sounds like the devil himself on the aptly titled Maleficia)
The Crucible is
still fun.
Music is clearly John
Zorn's true
love (well, it'd have to be to have a discography of 75 albums, not
even including projects like Electric
Masada, Bar Kokhba and
Naked City
and the collaborations he's done with other artists, including Bill
Laswell and Yamataka Eye), and The
Crucible buzzes
with the feel of four men making music for the sheer hell of it,
critics and commercial success be damned.
So
if you've not come into contact with the works of John
Zorn
(and I'm ashamed to say I hadn't until this year), then The
Crucible may
well be a good place to start. It's more metal-influenced than many
of his albums (despite the lack of guitars) and the tracks are all
accessibly lengthed, only Maleficia
straying
over eight minutes. It's certainly a formidable album to the
untrained ear, but I'm sure you're all a hardy enough lot to take
this on. Even after 28 years and a discography easily in triple
figures, John Zorn
proves
the years have not dulled him at all. The
Crucible is
as vicious and vital as he's ever been, and proves John
Zorn is
still a much-needed presence in the extreme music scene. And most of
all, it proves you don't need guitars to kick up one hell of a
racket.