Search - Massacre :: Melt Down

Classic stuff

lexo-2 | 06/18/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I found this unexpectedly in the Dublin branch of Tower Records. For once - for once! - I had the clerk asking me whether I thought it might be good. Being a longterm Fred Frith fan, I answered in the affirmative, but the only other Massacre album I own is their 1980-or-so "Killing Time". While that was an indeed stonking output, this album knocks spots off it.Recorded at a live gig in London in the summer of 2001, Massacre have never sounded or played better. The rhythm section, Charles Hayward and Bill Laswell, churn away with funky inventiveness, but the real drama is provided by the indomitable Mr. Frith on guitar. His chunky, clanky, whiny, seemingly-low-tech but highly emotional guitar sings and burps and coughs and roars over the backdrop as if Fred Maher had never been the original drummer. This is some of the finest rock improvisation you are ever likely to hear, and you don't need a PhD to appreciate it. Top marks to John Zorn for releasing it on his Tzadik label, still one of the best places to hear good new music. But higher marks still for the lads, Messrs Frith, Hayward and Laswell, for playing it all in the first place. The best album of 2001, unless anyone can persuade me to the contrary."

Great live improvisation

Joel Benington | OLEAN, NY USA | 02/23/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If you liked Killing Time, you should also like this. It's a bit more laid back (which is like saying something isn't as hot as molten steel) with more of a funk groove in Laswell's bass lines. Frith provides his usual oblique, edgy guitar work, and there is nice group interplay. The recording appears to have been a DAT right off the soundboard. It was everything I'd hoped it would be."

Total Meltdown

T. Klaase | Orange Park, Florida United States | 12/04/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I really love the energy of this band. '98's "Funny Valentine" was amazing, but this live album is the best. This is Massacre stripped of the comfort of the studio and thrust into the void of a surreal live performance. This music is spontaneously improvised and it's just charged with creative alchemy. Highly recommended..."