beyond the border
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......................................................................................................................................................... Alto Saxophonist and composer John Zorn has written music for various ensembles, from a straightforward rock-style lineup to intricate chamber ensembles, and groups that he's played for. Zorn has frequently experimented with ways to create an extreme texture, whether by employing extended techniques from instrumentalists and vocalists, or utilizing dynamics and improvisation within the process of composition. Naked City is one of Zorn's heaviest projects, employing elements of thrash, noise and grind alongside surf rock, jazz, soundtrack and experimental music. The group often collaborated with Yamataka Eye or Mike Patton for the purpose of providing vocal textures as extreme and absurd as the instrumental components, but whether with vocals or instrumental, Naked City provided a whip-lash approach to arranging and atmosphere. Naked City Live, Vol. 1: Knitting Factory 1989, provides a great document of the instrumental component of Naked City: John Zorn, Marc Ribot, Fred Frith, Wayne Horvitz and Joey Baron, allowing them to demonstrate the group's fullest capacity. At this point in the band's history, the group had only released the self-titled album and played compositions from this album on the live release. The self-titled release features a number of original compositions, as well as some extremely out rendition of movie and TV themes like "A Shot in the Dark," and the James Bond theme, and these tunes provide some familiar ground for the extreme arrangements the band employs. Several of these tunes appear on the live release and are treated with equal parts bombast and dignity. The heaviest moments of this album, whether the short compositions like Hammerhead, Igneous Ejaculation and and Demon Sanctuary, or the sudden blasts of blastbeating, saxophone shrieking and multiphonics and guitar and keyboard effects that appear in longer tracks like Latin Quarter, Snagglepuss and Way I Feel, are thoroughly impressive. Stretched further than they are taken on studio versions, these tracks demonstrate the band's fluidity, alternating whiplash precision with various levels of improvisation with almost no audible warning. Naked City is often typified by their capacity for extreme sound - here, they demonstrate their ability to not only do both loud and soft with equal adeptness, but juggle them effectively, while unicycling. Zorn once noted his interest in what he called the "jump-collage" style utilized by the Warner Brothers cartoon composers, like Carl Stalling. Zorn tried to take these sudden shifts in mood and tone to the logical extreme, accomplishing this with the instrumental ranks of a rock band and utilizing music of a great many genres, several featured within the same tune, though usually carrying along some recognizable segment of the melody throughout. This carries into the group's improvisation, which features short contributions from individual members as well as full-group interplay, both structured and not. I'm sometimes wary of rock-oriented improvisation, as sometimes the players involved isolate themselves within their soloing, rather than trying to create an exchange with each other - as huge a fan I am of King Crimson, for example, I find some of their 70's improv stuff to be fairly self-indulgent. Not so here - all the players have a jazz background and extremely far-reaching musical tastes, so the improvisation at any level of structure adds layers to each tune. A few of the tunes here are stretched out a good deal from their studio versions - "Chinatown" builds from an ambient beginning into an aching, melancholic rendition of the modern film-noir theme, while "Inside Straight" is stretched to almost double the length of the studio version, while preserving the fluidity of the original. The band handles more traditional jazz improvisation structure well, with tunes like "Erotico" and "Way I Feel," where each member takes on common roles such as rhythm, soloist and support within a more extreme framework. "Naked City Live, Vol 1: Knitting Factory 1989" provides plenty of interest to completists and casual fans alike. Without the absurdist vocal element featured on some studio albums, the band is able to stretch loose where they can, demonstrating that the compositions have a vitality beyond their sheer novelty. Where "Naked City," "Torture Garden" and "Radio" demonstrate with equal focus the band's instrumental and vocal material, and other releases show the band operating with admirable focus within ambient and noise realms, this live release demonstrates an extremely talented band with wide-reaching taste, fully possessing the skill they need to evoke this taste without any room for doubt. Adam Matlock
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