Customer Reviews

At the Mountain of Madness: Live in Europe

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John Zorn's Electric Masada project is one of those bands that carries enormous weight with it-- indeed the label website states that "Electric Masada combines the raw power and manic speed of Naked City, the improvisational edge of Cobra and the spiritual lyricism of the Masada songbook"-- certainly a lofty bill to live up to. As-yet unrecorded in the studio, "At the Mountains of Madness" is the second live release by the band, recorded during two dates on the end of a European tour last year. Like the previous release ("50th Birthday Celebration Volume 4", recorded in September of 2003), this one remarkably lives up to all the hyperbole that the label's description can come up with.

For those who haven't seen this band live (and you really should if you get the opportunity-- the records really only capture a fraction of the power live), a bit about the performance environment. Zorn sits in the middle of the band, part performer, part conductor, indicating solos, moments, noises and so on, encourages solos he enjoys, shifting directions in those he does not, and so on. This leaves a fierceness and edginess reminiscent of the Game Pieces, although with the framework of the piece setting up the "rules", it translates better on album than the Game Pieces did. Zorn assembled for this tour what seems to be his preferred cast for Electric Masada-- the leader on alto sax, Marc Ribot on guitar, Ikue Mori on laptop electronics, Jamie Saft on keyboards, Trevor Dunn on bass, Joey Baron and Kenny Wolleson on drums and Cyro Baptista on percussion. Ribot, Saft and Baptista are in Zorn's direct line of sight in his regular playing position and are most commonly utilized in determining and altering direction of the pieces, whereas Dunn and the drummers are usually more concerned with maintaining the groove and rhythmic figures and Mori is somewhere totally in between all of this, providing an oddity to the music that really quite defies definition. The net result is that the entire performance is under Zorn's control at all times, with direction put forth usually via guitar or keyboard. The members of this band have been in projects together for the better part of twenty years of association with Zorn's downtown scene, however, and they respond to each other in powerful ways-- blending together seamlessly and moving as one voice.

About the music itself-- the two sets are both lengthy (the first disc runs about 80 minutes, the second 77), with eight and seven songs performed, respectively. Six songs are performed in both sets, and all the material except for "Metaltov" comes from the Masada book-- "Metaltov" is a Naked City piece that gets fitting readings in both sets. The performances really cover the range of Zorn's expression, from moody, spacious and lyrical ("Abidan", performed on both sets) to breezy with deep grooves ("Lilin" on the first set after the frantic opening) to explosive and fierce ("Metaltov") and overtly Stalling-influenced ("Hath-Arob"). Along the way, some fantastic playing comes forth from all parties, with the performance nothing short of top notch.

Comparing it to the birthday show, it's fairly similar, but if anything the performances here seem to capture more energy somehow. Five of the seven cuts from the birthday CD receive readings on this one, so you've some expectation of the diversity of material from the Masada songbook.

Bottom line-- this is just as fantastic as that release was-- music this powerful is so rarely performed, the opportunity to hear it on record is extraordinary. Highly recommended.

In its original accoustic incarnation, John Zorn's Masada explored more or less standard bebop (with elements of free jazz) using the compositional techniques of "Jewish" music (i.e. Klezmer) as a starting point. This seemed to represent a kind of coservatism for Zorn, who is renowned for his obsessive, fragmented po-mo sensibility. His (and his band's) work under the name Naked City reveled in throwing together as many different styles as possible, sometimes within a single song. So Masada could be seen as Zorn's longing for the "simpler" ways of tradition. With Electric Masada, Zorn seems to have once again decided to let his id run loose and transform his heritage into music that sounds like nothing less (and even a lot more) than a 21st century update of Miles Davis' electric period. I only wish they'd been around about a century ago when I had my Bar Mitzvah; if these guys had played during the reception, I might not have abandoned religion altogether!

I can picture it now: Zorn acting as a conducter/participant with a band including Marc Ribot on electric guitar, Trevor Dunn on bass and Ikue Mori on laptop electronics. They blast full force into the stormy seas of "Lilin" and instantly the dance floor erupts into a moshing mass of marauding Jews, except for my racist great aunt (c'mon, admit it--every family has one) that nobody really likes, who has a conniption and shrivels into an unconscious ball. The drumming of Joey Baron and Kenny Wollesen is as frenzied as the best hardcore punk even as they trade complex rhythmic patterns, which only eggs on the rest of the band. Zorn's signature saxophone playing, with its rapid high-pitched squealing, causes even more damage, shattering wine glasses all over the hall as waiters are trampled underfoot in their efforts to clean up. When the band launches into Naked City holdover "Metal Tov," not even the Roman army can defeat the crowd. The loud, abrasive guitar playing alone sets the roof on fire, and the Rabbi screams (in Yiddish, no less) "we don't need no water, let the m-----f----- burn!" Just when it seems that anarchy is all but inevitable, they play the relatively calm "Karaim" and we are instantly transformed into Torah scholars, bobbing our head to the bebop as we contemplate the mysteries of G-d. But wait! The frenetic "Hath Arob," which makes us imagine a heavenly fistfight between Miles and (Looney Tunes composer) Carl Stalling finally destroys the place, and the survivors emerge from the rubble as new people. I resolve not to waste my Bar Mitzvah money on college and instead travel the world, bringing news of Radical Jewish Culture to the trad, uncool masses. Soon, there is peace in the middle east and decent bagels in middle America. All because of Electric Masada. Amen.

Anyway, "At The Mountains of Madness," two discs of live recordings from the band's tour of Europe, while not enough to make atheists reconsider, is certainly inspiring enough to make H.P. Lovecraft (from whom the title is borrowed) rise from the dead and dance around like a satanic epileptic. And that ain't bubkis, my friends.

This is as good, if not better, than the 50th Birthday recording.

The boys are even tighter and most of the improvisation unfolds with a newfound ease. Don't worry, there is still plenty of insanity when the percussion gets going. Musically it is as if these guys are pounding on the gates of heaven, demanding a dialoge with G-d.

John Coltrane approached improvisation from a spiritual level - - THIS BAND DOES THE SAME!

My only criticism is the minimal amount of new material. Don't get me wrong, I could listen to them play the same song five times in a row. It's just that the songs off the last album had a rawness that it lost once the musicians get truly comfortable with the piece. Even so, they do amazing things once they are comfortable so I can't fault the material. I just want them to stay fresh and continue making music for 30 years!

Nothing in modern-era music this ferocious, powerful, utterly beautiful and, ultimately, non-categorizable since Mahavishnu in its '70's prime. Nothing. Check out the 2 live versions of "Metal Tov".

John Zorn's work is always experimental, but this album plunges head-first into the avant garde, even bordering at times on noise rock. It thoroughly lives up to its name (I have to admit I haven't read its namesake, but I mean just the name itself) in the sense that the experience of listening to the album can be likened to the iconic journey to meet (or confront) the spirit of the mountain (cf. Jodorowski's "The Holy Mountain"). In the midst of the musical wilderness of "At the Mountain of Madness," one can identify the lofty, austere, wind-swept landscape; the doubts and determination of the journey itself; the treacherous peaks; the overwhelming, challenging, and chaotic influence of the mountain spirit; and the ultimate exultant serenity of the trek (though not necessarily in this linear chronology). Like the journey to the mountain, this album is an all-consuming experience which calls one into the vulnerable spaces outside of oneself, but also like the mountain journey, the experience promises great reward.

It is a sad-but-true observation that experimental artists' true genius can never really get captured in recording ... this album is (very nearly, at least) a counterexample to that trend. Taking Zorn's trademark Hasidic jazz repertory to the very edge of sanity and beyond (as the name suggests) for an unrelenting two-and-a-half-hour eruption of exquisite and enthralling madness, this album creates a smoldering, evolving spectacle you have to see (i.e., with your ears) to believe. Don't think avant garde / experimental jazz can sustain its appeal for that long? Try it ... it'll kick your ass.

All of the previous reviews are spot on - this CD contains demonic, magical, insanely beautiful cosmic creativity coming at you in sounds you'll never believe were possible... reminds me of the crazy power of Miles' "Dark Magus" but brought forward into the digital age, ever more chaotic, precise, and mind-blowing.

It's interesting to note that the front cover features a mandala of the Tibetan deity Vajrayogini paired on the back cover with her sometimes consort, Chakrasamvara, both Tibetan tantric deities of the dharmapala class (protector deities). Vajrayogini, like Shiva, is the female deity that dances the world into being. "Her practice includes methods for preventing ordinary death, intermediate state (bardo) and rebirth (by transforming them into paths to enlightenment), and for transforming all mundane daily experiences into higher spiritual paths." Listening to this music will definitely transform your daily experience into sublime spiritual reality.

What are you waiting for?

I have little to add up to the other reviewers, just to emphasize the greatness of this record.
Now, after listening repeteadly to this cd over and over, the pieces seem to be highly controlled, rehearsed, almost every solo fits in so well that it must have been prepared... But it's not: listening to it's easy to forget that it's not, it's all improvised, the experience of seeing them live is an unique one.
Speaking to Jamie Saft after a concert, he told me they never rehearse together, they don't even do sound checks together, they just go out and play. I don't know how much of this is true, but the sheer brilliance and freshness of these guys playing together shines through all the record. And, after seeing them in concert twice, I can say every concert really is an unique experience, although they play more less the same setlist, it changes so much from one concert to another that the music seems new again and again.
I'd only hope they release more records, maybe a Book of Angels recording... Man, would that be a dream come true!

I got into John Zorn and H.P. Lovecraft at about the same time (late 1980's), and have been a huge fan of both ever since. Somehow I missed this title when it first came out, having just found and purchased it a couple of weeks ago while catching up on Zorn's "hermetic" period (IAO, Magick, etc). Although none of the track titles or liner notes refer to Lovecraft by name, it's still mind-blowing to see a Zorn record with a Lovecraft title. Talk about concentric circles!

I can only echo the previous comments about how good a recording this is. I can't remember the last time a piece of NEW electric music got me out of my chair and dancing around, but this one certainly did. The comparisons to Miles' electric period are valid, but this is Miles-electric to factor of 10. Hints of everything from Santana to John Coltrane, even to Tom Scott/Weather Report, reverberate, but Electric Masada is still uniquely Zorn.

Despite the inaccurate Amazon description of only 1 disk (a creeping problem with this site, it seems), 2 live concerts are represented on the 2 x 70+ minute disks, with essentially the same titles on each. Disc I opens with the usual Zorn barrage insanity for 3 or 4 minutes, sort of a call to arms, before settling into an amazing groove of textures, rhythms, extended solos, dynamic arrangements, ethnic influences and just out-of-this world musicality. Man, this is good stuff!! Disk II is not far behind, but not quite to the level of Disc I, in my opinion. Still, it is different enough. Not sure why this just wasn't released as a single disk, but I'm not complaining. Can't get enough of it.

While I am not a Zorn expert by any means, I think this is one of his best recordings since the original Naked City albums. Perhaps a bit retro in it's allusion to 70's hard fusion, it's still great to hear a Zorn electric group stretch out on extended solos AND arrangements, with tons of influences AND original concepts. Just a great recording!