JOHN ZORN — Xu Feng : Game Pieces, Volume I (review)

JOHN ZORN — Xu Feng : Game Pieces, Volume I album cover Album · 2000 · Eclectic Fusion Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
snobb
This album continues John Zorn's infamous "game pieces" concept, which was first introduced on "Cobra". This concept involves pairing musicians that use the same instrument for playing organized or "framed" improvisations. As a result, the album contains well structured collections of noisy and energetic free form instrumentals or - "regulated chaos"?

Obviously the main man on board here is Fred Frith (his counter-pair is guitarist John Schott). Another well known (and quite unusual) figure is metal band "Slayer" drummer Dave Lombardo (his counter-pair is drummer William Winant who is known as a classical musician, but who also played with Mr.Bungle and Sonic Youth as well). Besides the pairs of guitarists and drummers, a third pair is two electronic musicians - Chris Brown (worked with Rova/Larry Ochs and others) and David Slusser.

This album is titled after the kung-fu movie actress and borrows its sharpness and energy from martial arts culture. These compositions were written in the mid 70s, somewhere at the same time as "Cobra's", but are different from Zorn's earlier "game pieces". This music is less chaotic, more structured and - it works! The best way to imagine the sound here is just imagine Naked City mixed with 80s King Crimson with a bit of avant-garde electronics sounds.

This is not music for everyone, but it is quite a successful release illustrating Zorn's metal blasting side. This could be recommended for Naked City and Painkiller fans.
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