Zu

Zu: Plumbing the Depths of Sludge Jazz

On its 2009 album, Carboniferous, Italian sludge-jazz trio Zu manages to get even heavier with piles of effect pedals and Mike Patton‘s wild vocal gymnastics.

100 Unheralded Albums from 2010

Among the thousands of under-appreciated or under-publicized albums that were released in 2010, hundreds became our favorites and were presented in ALARM and on AlarmPress.com. Of those, we pared down to 100 outstanding releases, leaving no genre unexplored in our list of this year’s overlooked gems.

Morrow vs. Hajduch

Morrow vs. Hajduch: John Zorn’s Ipsissimus

Scott Morrow is ALARM’s music editor. Patrick Hajduch is a very important lawyer. Each week they debate the merits of a different album.

John Zorn: IpsissimusJohn Zorn: Ipsissimus (Tzadik, 10/5/10)

John Zorn: “Warlock”
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Morrow: In 2006, indefatigable composer John Zorn launched another of his countless ensembles — Moonchild, a sludgy power trio built around vocalist Mike Patton, bassist Trevor Dunn, and drummer Joey Baron.  In the four albums that began with Moonchild: Songs without Words, Zorn has used the group to explore heavy and spastic improvisations amid composed riffs and directed song structures.

The lineup has expanded a bit for a few releases, but that wild trio is the group’s heart, with Patton offering wordless shrieks, chants, and vocal spasms over Dunn and Baron’s distorted notes and progressive rhythms.  Ipsissimus is the group’s fifth release in less than five years, and it’s the first to prominently feature the guitar work of Marc Ribot, who appeared on one track of the 2008 release The Crucible.

Hajduch: In description, this sounds like a whole lot of John Zorn’s projects (in the case of Naked City, you sub out Mike Patton and add Yamantaka Eye of Boredoms, but the description still fits to an extent).  In practice, it’s very different.  Patton feels extraneous to an extent — like Attila Csihar‘s work with Mayhem, it can seem sort of like there is just this guy, making noises.  But also like Attila/Mayhem, there are moments where it just fits perfectly and feels exactly right.

Kid Koala

Kid Koala: Turntable Technician

Turntablist and graphic novelist Eric San, a.k.a.Kid Koala, mixes artistic mediums and musical styles in his hands-on performances, which include a dizzying degree of analog skills.

Mike Patton

Mike Patton: Anomalous Vocalist Tackles Italian Orch-Pop

Given identifiable credits such as Faith No More, Tomahawk, and Mr. Bungle, the words “Patton” and “incognito” don’t seem to follow each other. But Mike Patton‘s newest project, Mondo Cane, stems from just such a union — with Patton disguising his American accent and assimilating to a new culture.

Weekly Music News Roundup

Holy collaboration — Mike Patton and Justin Broadrick are contributing to a score by Fog‘s Andrew Broder and Adam “Doseone” Drucker for a semi-autobiographical “photographic novel” by Alan Moore.  Whoa.

In other news, The Dillinger Escape Plan has signed to Season of Mist, Eyedea & Abilities has a new album, two Rodriguez-Lopez brothers (not Omar) are releasing a debut full-length, and Múm will release a new disc in August.  This and more is in the roundup.

Mike Patton: Crank 2: High Voltage

Crank 2The first feature-length film score from musical maven Mike Patton winds through high-intensity electro-rock, shifting from track to track with spaghetti western, film noir, and kung-fu elements.

This exceptional work conjures up many different visuals for the listener, and it may be best experienced before seeing the film.