Search - Zeena Parkins :: No Way Back

Soundtrack to insanity

Pharoah S. Wail | Inner Space | 09/07/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I could go either way on the 3 or 4 stars here. 3.5 most likely. The parts of this disc I love are 5-star all the way, but this album kinda ends with a whimper rather than a bang... the first half to 3/4ths of it being better (fantastic) than the last quarter to a half.



This is a solo disc of electric harp improvisations with overdubs, so it's still all her but often times there is more than just one track of her at once. The overdubs mesh perfectly, though. She is excellent at improvising off of herself.



The 5-star stretch of this disc will slaughter your psyche. Bone-crunching walls of distortion... alien squalls chattering out to mobilize extraterrestrial consciousness... that big bell-toned cathedral ring, etc... this disc has it all. Zeena is a brilliant and fantastically creative improvisor and this disc really illustrates that. She is great with Nels and Bjork and Thurston Moore too, but this disc is great just for being an unadulterated dose of pure, electric Zeena. If you're just curious, or if you've already loved her elsewhere, you want to buy this cd.



You also really need to check dtmgallery.com and/or forcedexposure.com for a disc of hers that isn't widely available (and is NOT here at this site). It's called Live At Easthampton Town Hall and it's the electric trio of Zeena, Thurston Moore, and Nels Cline. That disc is phenomenal! It's an audience recording of borderline painfully low fidelity, but it is around an hour of one of the single most magnificent electric improvisations I've ever heard. Absolutely incredible! Yes yes yes it would be better if it sounded as good as No Way Back sounds, but it doesn't... yet it is still one of my single favorite electric improvisations of all time.



Recently I picked up Zeena's Mouth = Maul = Betrayer disc and after a couple listens (so far) I am quite disappointed with it. It still may be a long time before I get around to reviewing that one, and I'll certainly listen to it a bunch more to see if my opinion changes, but as of now I have to say buy No Way Back instead. No contest."