Customer Reviews

Heretic

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The person who reads this should be, really, a Zorn fan lost in the maze of his output, scared to invest in a Zorn CD like JUDE that just tortures the listener, or something TRULY strange like ABSINTHE, which is beautiful but really difficult to hook onto. Rest assured -- THIS IS A GOOD ONE. It's the one I'd recommend for anyone considering buying one of the Japanese Zorn releases -- RADIO, somehow, never really appealed to me, GRAND GUIGNOL is a bit too DARK for most folk, and ABSINTHE, like I say, is just STRANGE. Not this disk. It's very varied, at times dark, intense,and violent, and elsewhere playful in bizarre and challenging ways. The "Here Come the 7000 frogs" duet between Zorn on alto and Boredoms weirdo vocalist Y. Eye, gibbering, shrieking, and generally flipping out, is priceless. There's also a surprisingly funky cut here, "Fire and Ice (club scene)." Well worth it. But "Is it safe?", you ask me again, reaching for the dental drill. Yeah, sure, if you're adventurous enough. Heh.

This is a very unusual record. The music is raw, is loud, and is really weird. I've only listened a tape-copy because it's hard to find here in Chile, but if you like John Zorn's avant-garde dementia, get this. It has a lot of screams and weird sax music, and also has some very dark, sinister atmospheres. I heard this was the soundtrack for an underground S&M movie. I'd really like to see that. It's uncommercial stuff, very intense, sometimes shocking, sometimes scary. A cool soundtrack for a walk in the night, just you, your walkman and the naked streets of the city.

(p.s.: excuse me if some phrases don't make much sense, spanish is my mother tongue)

"Heretic" is definitely a good record. It's represents a big change for Naked City, though, and if you're looking for another "Torture Garden" or even "Naked City" or "Radio", you won't find it here. This is more experimental, (at times) ambient, and definitely less structured and edgy than the previous Naked City releases. It seems to be a lot of lick-based noise where you have drums, keyboards, other percussion coming in and out, keyboards, other percussion, nothing planned out or even, shall we say, MUSICAL. Not to say it's a bad record, though, because it's definitely worth having, but don't go buying it hoping to get another "Torture Garden" fix, you'll only be disapointed in that case. There are absolutely no elements of grindcore, surf, or much of anything that made up Naked City's original mission, but do give it a chance, it will grow on you if nothing else.

Naked City was a compositional worshop for John Zorn-- while the band is known for its genre blending jump cut styles and hardcore miniatures, there are a number of other faces to this group, and "Heretic" displays them. "Heretic" exists in sort of an electric improv form that is unique to it-- there's not an attempt at bringing in other genres, no blending swing with hardcore and so on. As a result, it works better in terms of being a coherent statement than much of the other Naked City material.

One other difference is that the music here lacks the sort of density and business of "Naked City" and "Grand Guignol". This is further accentuated by all of the musicians not appearing on every track, instead we get a number of different views of the band. Like most Zorn material, there's not a lot here that's not terribly interesting, and there is a lot of note-- the churning, building, atonal "Sex Games" and "Saint Jude", zorn/Eye duets ("Sweat, Sperm + Blood", "Here Come the 7,000 Frogs", and "Mantra of Resurrected Sh*t") that reallys show off how brilliantly these two work together, a Frisell/Frith duet that illustrates the strength of the two of them on their instruments ("Vliet"), and speaking of Frisell, his guitar playing really gets shown off on "Submission" with a fractured and disjoint lead. And then there's "Dominatrix 2B", which actually has that jump-cut feel, although moving through the sort of environments and attitudes set up on this album rather than other genres. Also of note are the "Heretic" pieces, on which much of saxaphone technique and vocabulary he developed that are so unique to him are shown off over shifting backgrounds. But perhaps most stunning is "Back Through the Looking Glass", I've been trying to determine how to describe it, but it really needs to be heard to be appreciated.

In its own way, "Heretic" is brilliant-- its a challenging listen, and if you're not firmly entrenched with Zorn's way, its probably going to be difficult to digest, but like many of his works, this one rewards repeated listenings and patience.

Note: This album is from: The Complete Studio Recordings.

Out of the entire Naked City release, no other album expect Heretic can challenge you. Heretic may be their most unique albums. It their toughest album to get into, because, on first listen, it sounds more like noise than music. But this free jazz inspired album is more than meets the ear.

Heretic was the soundtrack to a Japenese BDSM film. Further showing this is, right when you push play, there is just this indescribable, seedy, atmosphere, pipes and ruins, like this is hapenning in industrial decay. That just sets the done right there, but that's not all the album has to offer.

Heretic focuses more on smaller ensembles. Backdropped against industrial atmospheres, grit and grime, and anything else that resembles the whole shebang of whatever I'm talking about, you will find lot's of disjuntled yet interesting basslines, painful sax squeals, hilarious screams, and whatever else that would probably be used with Naked City's noisier side. Plus, it's just great to hear them interact. This is kind of a musicians album at times, and that's alright sometimes. Yet it has some of sort of weird emotion. Definitely not precalculated lifeless stuff. It has an ugly soul, but it's there. Sweet.

Alright, descriptions are kind of varied, but this album is a rewarding experience. Coupled with four other great John Zorn albums in the box set, this one will take plenty of patience and lot's of ________ time, but it's definitely worth it.

9/10

I really took a liking to naked city when I first heard the self titled release and grand guignol. Mainly because of how it sounded like such an extreme force of organized chaos. What we have here is the same kind of chaos but with little or no organization. Alot of this album just sounds as if each musician is off in his own world improvising and having no care as to what the other musicians are up to. There is a pretty neat highlight where the vocals and the sax have a improv duel but it wasn't quite worth the import price except for the fact that I may as well collect them all at this point.

I would consider avoiding this one until you've bought the self titled album and Grand Guignol. If you were impressed by that like I certainly was. Consider whether you can handle that in improv form. If so then you may have found your gem.

This is a very unusual record. The music is raw, is loud, and is really weird. I've only listened a tape-copy because it's hard to find here in Chile, but if you like John Zorn's avant-garde dementia, get this. It has a lot of screams and weird sax music, and also has some very dark, sinister atmospheres. I heard this was the soundtrack for an underground S&M movie. I'd really like to see that. It's uncommercial stuff, very intense, sometimes shocking, sometimes scary. A cool soundtrack for a walk in the night, just you, your walkman and the naked streets of the city.

(p.s.: excuse me if some phrases don't make much sense, spanish is my mother tongue)

this brings back frond memories of the sounds of NYC Garbage trucks picking up trash in early mornings. You call this music. Belongs on NTV. (Noise TV)Is this guy a whacko or what--LOL