Has anyone been on a such an amazing roll as John Zorn has been these past few years? The Gift, The Rain Horse, The Dreamer's, Moonchild, Lucifer: Book of Angels Vol. 10, The Crucible, and now he takes another brilliant left turn with Filmworks XIII: El General.
The liner notes to "El General" explain the long and uncertain journey of this album. Zorn was reluctant to work on this music because, as he explains, the soundtrack medium is becoming a bit worn for him, and also because he just didn't think he was right for the project. The filmmaker was persistent however (thanks filmmaker!), but in the end gave Zorn short shrift by only placing three of the pieces in the film and hiring another composer to score the remainder (naughty filmmaker). For all this, "El General" does not suffer one bit. The music has a completely fresh, and (to my ears) original sound. I can't say that I've heard music like this before from anyone. There's definitely Mexican influence (the film is about the Mexican dictator Plutarco Elias Calles), most evident in the use of accordion. But there's very little reference to traditional Mexican sounds, scales, and arrangements. Marc Ribot's electric guitar-work features prominently, as does Kenny Wolleson's vibraphone. This is an easy-going album, and light-hearted for the most part, but there are also moments and even entire songs which have a somber mood. The pace of the album is fairly steady throughout, which is not something found in most of the Zorn catalog. Once again Zorn relies on the incredible talents of Marc Urselli to both capture the performance of these songs and also do the mixing, in order to make sure they come across to the listener as intended. Urselli has now recorded and mixed most of my favorite (and what I believe are the best and most subtle) Zorn albums. So it would seem that Marc is on just as much of a roll as Zorn himself. Mr. Urselli has an amazing ability to remove all obstacles between the performance and the listener. He's able to give the recording such an immediacy and presence that the recording medium itself seems to not exist, as though the performance is happening anew for the listener each time.
Scott Hull gets the call for mastering duties and does not disappoint. It must be an extreme pleasure to polish these gems. I've listened to the Zorn albums mastered by Hull in countless different situations on systems of widely varying quality - the power, the nuance always comes across. Keep it up gentlemen!

inquiet hails from Melbourne, Australia. I had no previous knowledge of inquiet prior to receiving the album from the band themselves. In fact, I'm not even sure if it's a band or just one person. inquiet creates layered, patchwork soundscapes. You can hear the influence of the land down under in the music from time to time, with bits and pieces of native drumming popping in and out. But overall it's virtually impossible to characterize the songs on Inq Beyong. The album is relatively mellow, but the ever shifting sonics keep the listener's attention at each moment. There are bits of electronic, choral, pop, orchestral, jazz, and a host of other styles happening on Inq Beyong. You won't find traditional song structures here, but there are some chances to sing along. That's right, you can actually sing along with some of these songs, which is unusual for experimental music of this kind. The vocals are highly processed but are very accessible. inquiet makes good use of dynamics, panning, and reverb to achieve a sense of space and depth. I don't know what the recording process was or what kind of gear was used, but Inq Beyong sounds great. It's detailed, warm, and present. There's nothing harsh or over-compressed about it. Inq Beyong is a well executed production. It's an album that lies outside of the confines of modern popular music, and that's a good thing.

Teen Sounds is a pretty remarkable album. It's contradictory in many ways. The sounds and songs are often somewhat dissonant but yet very pleasing to the ear. They are quite dark yet also uplifting and enjoyable. Finally, the album is somber but comedic at the same time.
I was thoroughly impressed with the subtlety and complexity of this album from the first listen. The songs are composed by use of sampling, manipulation of tape reels and vinyl records, and also live instrumentation. The sounds are manipulated, distorted, arranged, and mixed in such a way as to make it almost impossible to tell where a sample ends and live instrumentation begins. The term "sound collage" falls short of conveying the sophistication of Teen Sounds, but is probably the most appropriate description.
Teen Sounds is full of memorable and haunting melodies, absolutely bizarre sounds, and distorted samples that you can't quite place. Blanketship, aka Jared Blum knew exactly what he was doing and where he was going with these songs. At no point does the album lose its way. The songs move in a clear direction. Blum's composition and arrangement skills are apparent throughout. Teen Sounds is extremely well crafted, original, and surprisingly accessible.
The mixing, by Blum, serves each song individually and the album as a whole. It's quite dense, with a powerful bottom end, but with clear highs that give the album a spacious sound. There's so much going on in these songs it would have been easy to end up with a muddled mix. But Blum makes excellent use of reverb to give the songs the width and depth required.
I had the pleasure of mastering Teen Sounds, a very unique, experimental, and rewarding album.

This is the best release of the year so far, and it'll be tough for anything to top it. (Though Zorn does have an upcoming release named The Dreamers, which just might do it.) This installment in the Filmworks series was composed for the animated film The Rain Horse, directed by Russian animator Dimitri Geller.

Zorn chose the trio of Erik Friedlander on cello, Rob Burger on piano, and Greg Cohen on bass. The trio is simply amazing. The way that they play off of each other is sublime. There's no other word for it really. At times they play complex runs around and through each other, but for the most part they leave room for one another to play astoundingly haunting melodies. Melody is the focus of the album. Zorn fans will know that this often not the case in his work. The melodies here are familiar somehow, but they're tough to place. Filmworks XIX: The Rain Horse has an Eastern European feel, as would be expected (after all, it was composed for a Russian film), but it's also got touches of Middle Eastern and Western influence.

What struck me most about the music is how emotional and romantic it is. As I said, the melodies are haunting, but they are also catchy. The songs have terrific pacing. Mind you, there is no percussion on the album. The piano, cello, and most obviously the bass create the tempo for these beautiful songs.

As amazing as the songs themselves is the story of the performing, recording, and mixing of the album. The musicians entered the studio in the morning and knocked out all 11 songs by 6pm. If that weren't enough, engineer Marc Urselli mixed the album in three hours. For an album of 11 songs of this caliber to be recorded and mixed in one day is a testament to the level of talent involved. The energy of the performances was captured perfectly - the sonics are great and none of the intensity is lost. Mastering engineer Scott Hull did an outstanding job. The sound is soft yet energetic.

The best album I've heard in a long time. I bow to thee Mr. Zorn and company.

Another AMAZING album from John Zorn.

I was tempted to leave the review at just that first sentence. But that might not be enough to pique everyone's interest. As it says on the album insert, The Dreamers is a follow-up of sorts to Zorn's The Gift. He employs most of the same brilliant musicians here, most noticeably Marc Ribot on guitar, Jamie Saft on keyboards, and Kenny Wolleson on vibes.

The Dreamers portrays a sense of, well, dreaming. Ribot's guitar and Saft's keyboard combine for lush textures and beautiful melodies. The compositions tend toward world music, jazz-fusion, and surf-rock, but don't fall neatly into any of these categories. Forcing these songs into genres isn't possible, but it gives you a sense of the feeling of the album. There is a complexity and subtlety in the arrangement of melody and harmony which pushes these songs beyond classification.

Fans of John Zorn's Electric Masada may recognize that this is the group performing The Dreamers. Along with Marc Ribot, Jamie Saft, and Kenny Wolleson, there is Trevor Dunn on bass, Joey Baron playing drums, and crowd favorite Cyro Baptista on persussion. Zorn himself joins in on alto sax.

Marc Urselli once again does an impeccable job of capturing the nuance of Zorn's detailed compositions and the performances of these exciting players. Scott Hull, as well, once again does a superb job of mastering so as to give this collection of vastly different songs and sounds a cohesive feeling and shine.

This album is a lot of fun to listen to. It's not an "easy" album per se, but it is a fun and rewarding listen.