morningstar

DeRank ™: 1,25

DeAge™ : 7434 days • Here since 1 february 2006

John Zorn Six Litanies For Heliogabalus

2 jun 07

Voto:

Indeed, Bjork can be loosely compared to Zappa because, like Zorn, she's a great mixer of styles: jazz, rock, classical music, avant-garde. Let's say, take Zappa, remove his mustache, woody-allenize him, and add a splash of free jazz, punk, grincore, Morricone, and cartoon music. Both musicians, moreover, have declared themselves largely influenced by Edgar Varese, whom I personally have always found unlistenable.

John Zorn Six Litanies For Heliogabalus

2 jun 07

Voto:

Zorn is fundamentally a great experimenter and tends to release on record a bit of everything, both truly beautiful works and, every now and then, things that are only halfway successful but can still be interesting as provocations. I don't think he's put out any complete nonsense; in return, he's released a lot of good music. A few mediocre albums here and there have indeed slipped through his fingers.

John Zorn Six Litanies For Heliogabalus

2 jun 07

Voto:

I miss this, along with Astronome. Moonchild, in between things, I’ve only listened to it once and it didn’t excite me too much; it’s not excluded that one day I might change my mind. Zorn is indeed a volcano; I believe no one understands him because his records are too many and no one has the time to listen to them properly. The soundtracks of the films, some of them are fabulous too.

Brian Eno Ambient 4: On Land

2 jun 07

Voto:

I stopped at Music for Airports; maybe I should explore it further. I didn't know that Bill Laswell had worked with Eno, what a nice surprise (I only knew him as Zorn's bassist in Painkiller and as the leader of Praxis, both great bands).

Derek Bailey, Pat Metheny, Gregg Brendian, Paul Wertico The Sign Of 4

1 jun 07

Voto:

In fact, I’ve looked for this in record stores and have never found it. I might be able to get it on eBay, but is it worth it? If I find it at a cheap price one day, maybe. Metheny and Derek Bailey are probably as far apart as you can imagine in terms of guitar playing, and I was intrigued by the combination. Bailey is indeed truly bizarre, total improvisation I would say, for better or worse. I have one of his records from the '70s and it’s probably the most unlistenable thing in my collection, some kind of improvisational noise with no trace of melody. Anyway, it’s really useful for getting annoying aunts and Jehovah's Witnesses out of the house...

Bob Dylan Saved

25 may 07

Voto:

Well, let's say that taste is subjective. In reality, I find the arrangements annoying as well as the tone and themes. The next one, for example, Shot of Love, is by far better; there are a couple of gems like "the groom's still waiting at the altar" and "every grain of sand." Speaking of Nick Cave, the cover of "Death is not the end" in the murder ballads is nice.

Bob Dylan Saved

25 may 07

Voto:

In my opinion, it's the only truly bad Dylan album; maybe it's because I've never been into gospel music. This coming from someone who liked Self Portrait, Knocked Out Loaded, and Slow Train Coming. Nevertheless, Dylan has churned out about fifty albums, almost all of them good, and there are hundreds of excellent bootlegs out there.

Tommy Emmanuel Endless Road

24 may 07

Voto:

I've listened to something, but it never fully convinced me. Don't get me wrong, he's good, but it seems to lack personality. In my opinion, a great fingerpicking player is Tim Sparks.

John Zorn The Gift

22 may 07

Voto:

Indeed, Naked City and Alef are enormous... If you're not familiar with them, try, for example, Bar Kokhba or The Circle Makers, Masada for chamber orchestra, which are beautiful as well.

Michelangelo Antonioni Blow Up

17 may 07

Voto:

I don't get all this fuss about trashing Blow Up. It must have some merit if you've spun so much around it. I wouldn't be able to do it, even giving the film a 5/5. Clearly, I don't know a damn thing about cinema. However, I think 2001: A Space Odyssey by Kubrick is a real kick in the nuts, much worse; that's a truly empty film.