Jul 132013
 

John Zorn is a composer, multi-instrumental performer (though probably best known as a saxophonist), arranger, producer, improvisor, impresario, and MacArthur Fellow. Over a career spanning four decades, he has he has explored a wide spectrum of music and worked with a vast array of other musical artists. This year he turns 60 years old. In celebration of his birthday, he has been performing a series of worldwide concerts called “Zorn@60”. Last night, July 12, he put on one of these birthday parties at the Barbican’s concert hall in London. He had a few notable guests with him on stage, including Mike Patton.

I’m going to assume you know who Mike Patton is. Patton and Zorn have collaborated in the past (for example, on the 2002 experimental electronic/jazz album Hemophiliac), and Patton has also guested on releases by Zorn’s Painkiller and Naked City groups. Along with Joey Baron and Trevor Dunn, Patton was part of the “Moonchild Trio” that first appeared as the performers on Zorn’s 2006 composition, Moonchild: Songs Without Words, and went on to record other Zorn compositions.

So, this has been a long run-up to the main reason for this post, which is to show you some videos from the Patton-Zorn collaboration at Barbican last night. All four apparently feature music from Zorn’s album Templars: In Sacred Blood, with the composition again being performed both on the album and last night by the Moonchild Trio. What Patton does with his voice blew my shit away. The experimental music is also very cool. I think I need to track down this album. Watch and listen next. Continue reading »

Dec 042012
 

(Please welcome the return of guest writer Old Man Windbreaker, who has decided to take matters into his own hands. One hopes for the return of his sibling in the comments.)

Old Man Windbreaker greets you once again. After repeated bitching about the lack of content related to Faith No More on this site, One has decided to take matters into One’s own hands… And write about the albums Mondo Cane and Laborintus II by Mike Patton.

MONDO CANE

One first listened to this album around the the time of its release, back in 2010, without much knowledge about its background except for the introduction in the Wikipedia article. One didn’t pay much attention to the music back then, and forgot about it after the first listen.

Through a fortunate twist of fate, One stumbled upon Mike Patton’s voice on television last month while my cousin was watching Crank: High Voltage, and decided to watch the rest of the movie. One found during the credits that Mike Patton had not sung just one song in the film, but composed the whole soundtrack (which is excellent, by the way). One decided to go back home, and listen to more of his solo work and collaborations.

So, one morning, on a bus ride, to a mall where One would eventually do nothing but have a Subway sandwich for lunch, One huddled up in the back seat listening to this album. Listened to the album once; and twice; and thrice… [It was a long bus ride. But nevermind that.] Continue reading »

Jun 292012
 

As explained in Part 1 of this feature, I mean no disrespect to any of the bands mentioned herein when I refer to them as riff-raff. I guess I’ve been called a motherfucker so many times by bands during live shows that I’ve become convinced we’re all riff-raff, and surely that’s how the straight world looks at all of us, so why the hell not? Plus, there’s the appeal of alliteration.

This post is a continuation of my earlier report on news, music, and videos I saw over the last 24 hours that I thought were worth sharing. Even after dividing this into two parts, there’s still a shitload of stuff left to pass along. So I will try to be brief with my verbiage (yeah, like that will happen). In this post: Reports of new Season of Mist albums from Rage Nucleaire (featuring Cryptopsy’s Lord Worm) and Khonsu (featuring the Grønbech brothers and Thebon from Keep of Kalessin); Jucifer’s new Bandcamp page; new music videos from Profane Omen and Whitechapel; new songs from A Band of Orcs and Dysrhythmia; and for Mike Patton fans in the audience, a blurb about the revival of Tomahawk.

RAGE NUCLEAIRE

I just saw this, but three days ago Season of Mist announced the signing of a four-piece black metal band called Rage Nucleaire. It got my attention because the band was formed by Lord Worm, former vocalist of Cryptopsy. The band are working on a debut album called Unrelenting Fucking Hatred and they describe the music as a “hate-filled blend of melodic black metal and violent industrial.” Their list of influences range from early Emperor and Immortal to Anaal Nathrakh and Mysticum. The other members are bassist Alvater (ex-Frozen Shadows), guitarist/keyboardist Dark Rage, and drummer Fredrik Widigs.

The band have a new Facebook page here, which will allow me and you to sniff around for more info as it emerges. At the moment, although I’m hungry for some music by this group, I have none to share, nor do I have a release date yet. Continue reading »