Music Romance, Vol. 2: Taboo & Exile

Music Romance, Vol. 2: Taboo & Exile

ASIN: B00001ZWCL

Editorial Reviews
From Jazziz
Even without its trappings - the title, the beautiful and disturbing art of the sophisticated packaging, the provocative quotes and hidden photo - the pieces in this, Zorn's latest entry in his Music Romance series, are meant to push buttons. They signify moods, signal desires, and set in motion tensions that are in some way both uncomfortable and inevitable.

That's been a premise of nearly all of Zorn's work and of the avant-garde legacy he perceives. Zorn has given us a series of visual clues with this disc, and one could do a little research into a liner-note image of Saveur St. Cyr's temple skull tied to a small chair with whip, for instance. Or not. Regardless, the music flows organically, with references that are sublime, buried but not hidden, and demanding of no additional information. One could gather from the music's construction and performance of this music that it is meant to evoke a feeling of ritual, which usually involves some element of transgression or transcendence.

The overlapping, intertwining long tones from Jamie Saft's organ and Mark Feldman's violin on the opening track, "In the Temple of Hadjarim," trigger this sensibility as they ever so gradually fill the air like smoke trapped under a wine glass. With Greg Cohen's bass and Cyro Baptista's hand percussion percolating underneath and Saft's glancing acoustic-piano lines atop, Zorn establishes a surface allure, underlying tensions, and some important cycles of repetition.

These elements are present in most of the tracks that follow, although each is composed in a distinct style. On "Sacrifist," instead of Saft's organ and Feldman's violin timbres shifting phases, it's feedback from guitarists Fred Frith and Marc Ribot and from bassist Bill Laswell that shifts phases. And Baptista's dancing percussions have grown angry, morphed into the finessed bashings of drummer Dave Lombardo. "Mayim" and "Makkot" employ Feldman's violin, Cohen's bass, and Erik Friedlander's cello much as they function for Masada string pieces. "Koryojang," a piece that's reprised for a short closing track, is an ingeniously looped percussion duet of Baptista and Joey Baron. Zorn plays on just one track, "The Possessed," with Frith, Laswell, and Lombardo. In slightly more than six minutes, he demonstrates how much he can coax, not just from his horn's moans and squeals but from its middle register as well.

Zorn's playing hasn't really changed; through time, it's developed its own context. And that's true of his music in general. Here, he uses a very personal ensemble of players and employs compositional methods that span his career - from surf to Sephardic music, chamber music to grindcore - to accumulate his own context. It's a mixture of expertly crafted, immediately gratifying sonic cues that only slowly, upon immersion, give way to darker, embedded mysteries.

Tracks:

In The Temple Of Hadjarim
Sacrifist
Mayim
Koryojang
Bulls-Eye
Seraim
Shaaiapalassi
Makkot
Tiki For Blue
She Possessed
Oracle
Koryojang (End Credits)

Customer Reviews:

One of Zorn's best, and probably a great place to start........2005-03-17

Even for John Zorn, this one manages remarkable diversity-- essentially, I've likened "Taboo & Exile" to Naked City, only with moods held. Rather than jumping from one mood to the next to the next to the next in the course of a two and a half minute song, Zorn sustains feels and moods for the entire length of a piece. The result of Zorn's compositions, when combined with the stunning array of talented musicians contributing, is amazing. Somehow, this may be the best place to start looking at Zorn's work-- it certainly encompasses his many interests, but because ideas are allowed to develop, it presents them in an easier to digest fashion.

While the album is set up to provide a story (or perhaps to serve as a soundtrack without a movie?), I'm going to discuss the pieces instead with respect to the ensembles that play them-- there are several groups that perform on the various tracks.

The Masada String Trio (Mark Feldman on violin, Erik Friedlander on cello, and Greg Cohen on bass) are very prevelent in this music, either performing by themselves or with others. This is really always a good thing, as these three gentlemen are masters of their instrument and have a virtually psychic bond. The pieces they perform on alone ("Mayim" and "Makkot") both sound like they could have been lifted from the Masada songbook-- they've both got that sort of Eastern European meets jazz played by chamber musicians feel that the string trio has. "Mayim" is somewhat unique in that the improv section contains a rather drastic and powerful arco attack by Feldman and Friedlander that is among the best they've recorded, and "Makkot" features some of the trademark pizzicato work the trio does so well.

The trio also appears on two songs with keyboardist Jamie Saft and percussionist Cyro Baptista. The album's opener, "In the Temple of Hadjirim", uses the trio and organ as a drone over percussion whilst a simple melody is stated on piano. The effect of this near-ambient statement is startling, especially given the expectation of Zorn as a noisemaker (the good news is, the second track on the record gets us to our expectations, see "Sacrifist", below). The breezy "Zeraim", a great little tune by the same ensemble, conforms more to the string trio's sound, but is enhanced nicely by soft percussion and piano line, its actually one of the nicest pieces on "Taboo & Exile", really superb.

Another group we see a couple of times on this one consists of guitarists Fred Frith and Marc Ribot, bassist Bill Laswell, and drummer Dave Lombardo. As one would expect with a former Slayer drummer and two muscular guitarists, the two tracks they feature on ("Sacrifist" and "Chaalapalassi") are more rock-oriented, but actually more in the vein of King Crimson-esque improvs. One piece is droning metal, the other is a bubbling improv that eventually boils into a structured improv over the course of ten and a half minutes. The same group, minus Ribot, but with Zorn's sax, plays a much more structured Zorn wailing over rock rhythm section piece that could have fit in easily among the Naked City material.

The final group appearing on more than one track is Cyro Baptista and drummer Joey Baron, playing the circular, funky, percussion piece "Oryojang" in two parts-- this one for me actually screams for a lead which it lacks. Its a great piece with a nice groove, but I'd love to hear a guitar or horn over it. Then again, I suspect mood was the point, rather than coherency.

A couple more tracks associate together not by the musicians that play on them, but by their style. "Bulls-eye" is a punky, surfish piece, with a shouted lead vocal and Beach Boysesque harmony lines courtesy of Mike Patton, punky surf guitar from Robert Quine (lead) and Marc Ribot (rhythm), and anchored by Chris Wood and Sim Cain. This is actually another favorite of mine of this record, its a lot of fun and punk energy. The other surf piece, "A Tiki For Blue", featuring Ribot on guitar, Saft on organ, Greg Cohen on bass, and Robert Rodriguez on percussion, has a cooled out, laid back, churning feel. Another great piece, Ribot really was born to play Zorn's music.

The only other piece, "Oracle", features a wordless, half sung vocal by Miho Halori, featuring Saft, Friedlander and Baptista as accompaniment, it has the feeling of a wind-down and is almost trancelike in its arrangement.

I realize this review told you very little about the quality of the music, but rest assure, the material is all incredible. Its diversity and stellar performance is what leads one to this impression-- like Naked City, every time you think you know what to expect on the record, Zorn throws another curve ball at you. One thing about John Zorn that lets him do this is that he really excels at moving between styles, and he brings with him an array of musicians that really is without compare.

If you're unfamiliar with John Zorn's work, this or "Naked City" is a good place to start. If you know Zorn and don't have this, you should get it if either Naked City or the Masada work is of interest to you. Highly recommended.

stolen song........2003-08-11

This is the second volume in John Zorn's Music Romance series. The first album, _Music for Children_, was a diverse work expressing the dark aspects of childhood. Naked-City-style pieces, music box themes, eerie chamber music, wind machines, and more were featured, all musically exploring the album themes. Despite the musical diversity, it fit together quite nicely. _Taboo & Exile_ seems to have a theme presented by the packaging that may or may not be reflected in the music, I have no idea at this point. Beneath the dark album jacket is a bizarrely sexualized photo of a little Japanese girl, even though if you stop and think about it it's not actually sexual in any way in and of itself. So it's a rather striking way of distinguishing between innocence and maturity-adulthood-experience. Actually, reading that Jazziz review Amazon gives us on this page informed me about the "image of Saveur St. Cyr's temple skull tied to a small chair with whip" and I will have to look into that. In any case I haven't made any connection between the package and the music yet. Musically, the album is exotic, darkly sensual, and sad (hmmm). Some of the songs highlight a sense of contrast. For example, "Zeraim" is a remarkable Mediterranean-esque piece for piano, percussion, and strings. Here Zorn shows an ability to hide great complexity and rhythmic variation in melodies that remain pleasant and catchy. "In the Temple of Hadjarim", with mellow free piano and primitivist percussion, is like the integration of intersubjectively foreign Jazz concepts, East meets West. There is "The Possessed" also, a slow, assaultive which conveys great aggression despite its often-minimalist, rapid melodic fragments. The build-up on this one is very intense, and it is the only song Zorn himself plays on, and he contributes some vicious sax. On "Sacrifist", Lombardo's thrash-metal speed comes in handy for an urgent percussion backdrop for the roaring, monster guitars of Fred Frith and Marc Ribot and thick bass feedback from Bill Laswell. This song is quite noisy and frightening yet completely enslaves your attention because it is AWESOME. "Thaalapalassi", with the same lineup as "Sacrifist", is an eerie, primal buildup from pointillism to beastly screeching. It then retreats into the Hellish realm from which it came. Another reviewer on this page described it as "ambient heavy metal" and I wholeheartedly agree with that. "Makkot" and "Mayim" are scored for Eric Friedlander on cello, Mark Feldman on violin, and Greg Cohen on bass -- they are very twisty Masada-esque pieces and they are very good. "Oracle" is a strange, mellow track with a Cyro Baptista percussion loop being run under plucked cello, feather-light organ, and childlike Japanese vocals from Miho Hatori. "Koryojang", a hypnotic percussion duet between Cyro Baptista and Joey Baron, appears twice -- once in its full six-minute form and once as a short reprise with the added tag "end credits" for the final track. End credits for WHAT, I have no idea. From these descriptions (assuming they are coherent), you would be right in thinking this album is very diverse. However, it hangs together _very_ well, much like _Music for Children_ did. But maybe it's more of a metaphysical link than a musical one. "Bulls-Eye", with Mike Patton screaming over a catchy rock groove, doesn't seem to fit but I still like it. Oh, and for anyone who has _Music for Children_ and thinks "Cycles du Nord" was the worst thing ever, you will be happy to know there are no sound sculptures or other whack avant-garde compositions on this album. (Hey, I actually *like* "Cycles du Nord", but anyway you cut it, it IS a song made of wind.) Okay, bad enough that this review is all one paragraph, it probably doesn't even make SENSE. But really, For Zorn newbies and the hardcore fan, this is beautiful, excellent stuff. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Start right here.......2002-08-06

John Zorn is a guy I've been known to slag off from time to time as a bit of a dabbler, a dilletante, a charlatan, a shaman, a jack of all trades and master of none - you name it. But there's no denying that the little ultra-independent musical world he's set up for himself is something to be admired, and occasionally the musical results are also stunning. For my two cents, "Taboo and Exile" is one of his best.

Firstly, it features almost everything in his ouvre - avant-garde classical, klezmer, lounge, free jazz, noise, hardcore/grind and much more - but more importantly the selection of material is choice. Unlike other Zorn albums, the disparity of styles doesn't work against it, the jarring differences smoothing over into what actually sounds like a proper, thematic album; and also, the tracks are allowed a certain length of time to develop the material, unlike some of Zorn's 30-second blasts that litter a few of his lesser albums (that schtick was pretty cool in '91, but wore its welcome out long ago, I say).

So anyway, you get free-jazz squawks, hardcore blasts, percussive workouts and chamber pieces all complemented by the ace musicianship of folks like Bob Quine, Fred Frith, Marc Ribot, Dave Lombardo, Cyro Baptista and others, and all wrapped up in the ultra-fancy packaging you've come to expect from Tzadik. Mr. Zorn has been on a bit of a winning streak the last few years with his releases, and "Taboo & Exile" is definitely an excellent place to start.

Must have for Zorn lovers.......2002-06-06

This is a truly eclectic collection of Zorn compositions with different combos of musicians who've often worked with him providing a cornucopia of sounds. Some of the players are Fred Frith, Bill Laswell, Joey Baron, Marc Ribot, Mark Feldman, Greg Cohen, Robert Quine, Mike Patton, and Eric Friedlander, to mention only those with whom I was already familiar. The stark contrasts between the combos and the compositions may bother some listeners who are fans of only a limited segment of Zorn's oevre, but to me, this is a wonderful sampler that belongs in the collections of true Zorn fans of which I am most certainly one.

Eclectic, and positively so.......2000-07-05

John Zorn often has a tendency to produce rather scatalogical works with little rhyme or reason to their (lack of) flow. Taboo and Exile reflects this to some extent, but it sound less like a saxophonist suffering from ADD and rather has a pleasant continuity amongst its varied compositions. Being the second in the "New Romance Series," this release has a certain flare about it, occasionally capturing the same tenderness of Antonio Carlos Jobim ("In the Temple of Hadjarim," "Zeraim"). Other tracks are more in the math-rock vein of Ruins or perhaps Naked City, while others are more in the string-quartet approach of the Masada catalogue or Kristallnacht. Zorn himself only performs on one piece, while the lineup revolves on each track otherwise. All of these things considered, Taboo and Exile works surprisingly well as an album rather than a disparate collection of moodswings. Perhaps the best Zorn release I've heard in the last few years, with the exception of the live Masada releases.

Jazz Music:

Jazz Music

Jazz Music