Search - Naked City, John Zorn :: Torture Garden

Heavy Going - But Worth Every Cent

roosty@primus.com.au | Melbourne, Victoria | 10/10/1999

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This 2 pack album, called Black Box, is quite an impressive album. Torture Garden is lots of noisy saxophone playing to dizzying intricate time changes. Leng T'che is Naked City playing through an amazingly heavy and torturous set of music. The artwork to this cd kind of tells the story of the music, a photo set of a man going through horrendous torture in 1905 in Japan. All the while he is being dosed with opium to keep him alive, and all through the horrible torture, the man has a haunting smile on his face. If you are into Zorns heavier, noisier stuff, go for this. If you prefer the lighter jazzy stuff, stick to The Bribe and Naked City."

Some of the weirdest music you'll ever hear...

Jack C_01 | 02/16/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Imagine Miles Davis collaborating with Napalm Death to make an album. Impossible? Well that's how strange Naked City's music is, and it's definitely not something anyone could listen to and like. Bands such as Cynic and Atheist are labelled jazz-death metal, but this is true jazz-grind, it's like Zorn and his chums want to play grindcore, but they've got a saxophone to do it with, so that's exactly what they do, play grindcore with a saxophone. The shrieks of Yamatsuka Eye of the Boredoms on vocals are simply not human, and they add to the complete freakiness of the whole thing. This just isn't easy-going music, there are time signature changes throughout and really they take every element of catchy easy-listening music and turn it on its head to make this stunning mess.



It's so impossible to describe the style of music on display here, and if you hear a couple of odd tracks off the album, you'll most likely dismiss it as mindless noise. It needs to be listened to in full as a conceptual piece. So who is likely to enjoy this? It isn't something anyone can like, but there are a few groups of people I could recommend this to. If you've heard and liked any sort of experimental jazz in the past you might like this, and coming from the opposite direction, if you like any grindcore such as Napalm Death or Birdflesh, this might be for you. Lastly, if you are a fan of any of Mike Patton's work, especially Fantômas, then you need to see where some of his inspiration comes from. It's strange, but you've got to try it to love it.

"

TFS

nate anderson | Michigan | 07/06/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This CD goes in one end of Metal and out the other. It it probably the purest reproduction I have ever heard of the rage-filled aesthetics of Metal, all without words: only Eye's shrieking and Zorn's saxophone."