The Exciting Trio - In Chicago there is Willy (C)

This album was a birthday gift from my father and I had no idea what to expect from it. I decided to give ‘em a check out on their label website, where they received the eloquent description of “touching equally on jazz and post-rock” which immediately piqued my interest. From the get go, this album goes somewhere magical. It opens in a serene landscape full of bowed bass and quick arpeggiation on the guitar that bring to mind some cross of the orchestration on Venetian Snare’s Rossz Csillag Allat Született and Agalloch in their more tender moments. Of course, this isn’t good enough for the Exciting Trio, who are determined to break new and, of course, exciting grounds. Every carefully crafted piece is punctuated by a bit of classic jazz instrumentation, and free jazz dissonance that may seem unnecessary at a first glance. I think the highlights of this album are tracks like “Remembering Tokyo / The Last Alaskan” and “You’ve Got a Moustache and Everything” that feel as though Boris have re-composed Flood and accidentally left the manuscripts at the practice space of a jazz trio made up of members of Pelican who are making full use of Wes Montgomery’s spirit. The players on this album are phenomenal, making full use of their instruments as well as excellent use of effects to add many dimensions to the album. The composition is incredibly strong as well, though at times there are elements that seem unnecessary or out-of-place, and really packs a wallop. I highly recommend this album for anyone who is a fan of jazz, post-rock, experimental, or “new” music.

http://www.482music.com/albums/482-1023.html

John Zorn - Spy vs. Spy - The Music of Ornette Coleman (V)

Spy vs. Spy is quite possibly the ideal introduction to jazz for either a noisehead or a metalhead, speaking as both. It's chaotic. It's wild. It's fast. Zorn and Baron, later of Naked City, and fellows Tim Berne, Mark Dresser, and Michael Vatcher keep the pace just as relentlessly brutal as the most intense death metal. I'm not kidding. Hell, let old favorites like Immolation and Incantation compete with this lineup and these tracks for a pit and headbanging, and the metal kids might have something to worry about.

Zorn's combo here takes the unusual harmonies and group improv sections found throughout Coleman's catalog and play them about as fast as is reasonably acheivable with heavy thrash, crossover and grindcore influences. Napalm Death, Blind Idiot God, Lip Cream, DRI, and The Accused are mentioned in the liner notes. Sax solos throughout bring to mind Slayer's simultaneous leads at the end of "Raining Blood." I'm really not sure why this album hasn't forged a widely-popular style of music. My favorite of my Zorn collection, and of Coleman if you'll take it as such. There are blast beats scattered throughout. This is not grandpa's jazz.

Ornette Coleman - The Shape of Jazz to Come (V)

Coleman's 1959 Shape of Jazz to Come is indisputably a classic jazz album. The album features his group's usual almost-sloppy performance of harmonised, almost contrapuntal melodies and melodic to twisted solo sections. The songs are better-written and more organised and accessible than the classic monolith of the Free Jazz album, and really do a much better job of showcasing the talents of the performers and Coleman's writing. "Lonely Woman" is covered on Naked City's eponymous debut album, and certainly the entire album fits with Naked City's mangled and bizarre approach to jazz, from flailing screeching solos to thoughtful, slow movement and tasty grooves. And despite being pure jazz (in its own voice and style), The Shape of Jazz to Come locks into aesthetic appeal from a variety of music - the organised harmony of western classical music, the sections and solos of jazz, the wildness of fast improvised music, and even the almost artistic sloppiness of some rawer black metal.

This album works for a variety of musical situations. It would most likely to appeal to almost any crowd of pretentious artistic types, or normal people, or music fans from a variety of backgrounds . . . you name it. I certainly recommend the album for at least a listen or two for everyone. It remains an artistic challenge despite being almost entirely unoffensive, and never gets bland or boring. Good stuff.

Venetian Snares - Rossz Csillag Allat Szuletett (C)

This album by Vsnares happens to be one of my favorites. The album combines some classical-ambiance; some sampled Hungarian, Russian, and English classical; as well as those sick beats Vsnares is known for. Compared to Aaron Funk's other releases under the Venetian Snares name, this album certainly lacks the overall intensity of Winnipeg is a Frozen Shithole etc., but in no way lacking in intensity. Starting with a delightful piano piece (color tones? Atonal? Open Key? Too much heroin?), then shifting to a somewhat tense orchestral build up into some standard breakbeat-age, it all eventually gives way into a sort of drumsolo-madness. One of the highlights of the whole album is track 3, Öngyilkos Vasárnap (Literally "Gloomy Sunday"… Sound familiar?), a rather awe-inspiring remix/cover of Billie Holiday singing Gloomy Sunday, a song that on its own is one of my favorites, but as it is tactfully played with by Vsnares it becomes something more. The main beat of the song is simple in a way that fits the song well, but easily works into more drumorgasms throughout it. Almost giving you time to contemplate it is followed by another brief classical-esque piece, and then a very tense and chaotic piece more about the piano and the instruments than the beats, featuring a very sparse jazz-esque beat. The whole song is quite jazzy, featuring several "solos", most prominently for piano. Soon the beats take precedence again, and take the intensity to a new level. It all sets up the next few pieces (all very intense) very well, but before the storm begins, a brief calm sweeps through the album. The one thing that has always puzzled me was the choice of samples. The best track of the album begins with a somewhat odd sample regarding the concept of the album, the idea of being a pigeon at the Királyi Palota. The sample, practically bare except for some more pulsing strings, says "It's just a pigeon... Looking for its nest. It doesn't know that it's white. It doesn't know that it scares me. Why am I frightened so easily? Pigeon, why can you scare me? Am I not part of your life anymore? Am I not welcome anymore?" Almost immediately the chaos begins, starting as some simple fast-paced breakbeats, and slowly devolving into glitching insanity. Easily the next best track of the album, Masodik Galamb never ceases to amaze me with its strange choruses of pieces of the opening sample. This leads into the very glitch-heavy end of the album which is saturated with buzzing bass and some pretty high BPMs. Eventually it all winds down to a vaguely music-box ending.