ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ OOOOOOOOOOO RRRRRRRRRRRRR NNN NNN Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz ooooooooooooo r rr nnnn nnn zz o o r rr nnnnn nnn zzz o o r rr nnnnnn nnn zzz o o r rr nnn nnn nnn zzz o o r rr nnn nnn nnn zzz o o r rr nnn nnn nnn zzz o o rrrrrrrrrrrrr nnn nnn nnn zzz o o rr rr nnn nnn nnn zzz ooooooooooooo rr rr nnn nnnnnn zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZ OOOOOOOOOOO rr rr nnn nnnnn ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ rr rr nnn nnnn rr rr NNN NNN RR RR (AND OTHER NYC DOWNTOWN MUSICIANS) posts: zorn@unh.edu sub/unsub: zorn-request@unh.edu *** BACK ISSUES of this digest can be obtained in 3 ways: *** 1) anonymous FTP at cs.uwp.edu *** 2) via my homepage: http://pubpages.unh.edu/~mpj1 *** 3) send mail to mpj1@kepler.unh.edu, on the subject line, put: send #, where # is the issue you want DIGEST #87, 09-25-95 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- -From b-long@nwu.edu Mon Sep 18 12:11:11 1995 -Subject: zorn's elegy I have a issue of Zorn's Elegy on Eva records, a Japanese import. I believe that Elegy is a tribute -- or elegy, if you wish -- to Jean Genet, the French thief-poet-queer-author. It's organized in four movements named after colours (blue, yellow, pink, and black). The primary solo instruments are flute and viola, with occasional typical chaotic Zorn departures featuring guitar, turntables and sound effects. But don't expect any real strong rhythm section. There's some great vocal work from Mike Patton (mostly moans and growls, etc.). I wouldn't characterize it as jazz and certainly not heavy metal; it has more in common with twentieth century avant-garde, whatever that means. There's really more tension than release here, so the noisy parts come as a real surprise. It's real short, but packaged beautifully and is repeatably listenable. Cinematic stuff. I'd check it out. -- Brook Long ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -From srsvobod@piper.hamline.edu Mon Sep 18 13:30:17 1995 John Zorn's Elegy is the scariest album I've heard in a long time. Elegy is four compositions (named blue, yellow, pink, and black, I think (I don't have the album in front of me right now)) written by John Zorn, however, he does not appear on the album. Mike Patton and Scummy from Mr. Bungle, a few guys all named Dave, including David Shea, turntablist extraordinare, and a female flute player whose name I forget. There's a cello/viola player on there too. The album is half an hour long, and there is never really any "jazz" or "metal" part in it. Do you remember those old high school biology films of little one-celled protozoa floating around? The soundtracks to those were just weird because it seemed like it was just a bunch of random notes for a melody, with basically the same instrumentation (almost) as Elegy. The first two tracks remind me of those old films, with a variety of other noises included. The last five minutes of Pink, and all of Black is some really scary stuff though. It's very ambient really, with what seems like those Tibetan monks droning on one really low-pitched note forever, and a bunch of screams and banging on metal, etc. which makes those songs scary as hell to listen to with the lights out. One last note: Just because Mike Patton and Scummy are on this album, doesn't mean it sounds anything like Mr. Bungle. In the credits, Patton is listed simply as "voice", and he appears only in parts of the album. He doesn't say anything coherent- he's either screaming, or growling, or spitting up stuff instead of real vocals. There is one part which hurts to listen to where it sounds like PAtton is getting stretched on the rack and he screams in agony for a while. Scummy, the guitar player, is mixed so incredibly low it's hard to hear him at all. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -From twalker@uclink3.berkeley.edu Thu Sep 21 23:21:40 1995 -Subject: Re: ZORN DIGEST #86 hello, just bought three new tzadik releases: john zorn: redbird (very quiet and repetitive...the first part, "dark river," is simple heavy room-rattling bass drums...very nice ambient (*not* in the laswellian sense, tho)...the second is more "traditional" in that feldman-esque sort of way. nice.) john zorn: the book of heads (marc ribot playing Zorn solo guitar stuff...amazingly funny and simply all around great. a winner in the greatest sense of the word) john zorn & yamantaka eye: nani nani (chaos! chaos! not exactly my cup of tea, but, wow, is it funny...) anyway, just had to let y'all know my two cents...of you that have heard these, what's your opinion? -todd ----------------------------------------------------------------------