The second track of The Painted Bird, a gnarly avant-prog album from the mind of John Zorn, out via Tzadik.
tzadik
20 Years of Tzadik (Favorite Releases)
2 CommentsLa Mar Enfortuna — Conviviencia (2007, TZ8120)
Sephardic tunes interpreted by the man and woman behind dream pop duo Elysian Fields. Oren Bloedow comes through with a collection of groovy pop, funk, and rock arrangements enlivened by traditional instrumentation and, as everyone says, Jennifer Charles' voice is made of pure velvet.
Makigami Koichi — Tokyo Taiga (2010, TZ7268)
Vocalist, composer, and actor Makigami Koichi delivers his most detailed and varied set of soundscapes to date on Tokyo Taiga. Despite the vastly widened instrumental palette this time around, the pieces come together nicely as a whole and just enough Tuvan/Mongolian throat singing and jaw harp remain for my liking.
Otomo Yoshihide’s New Jazz Ensemble — Dreams (2002, TZ7238)
Probably the most accessible project to bear Yoshihide's name, but with songs this catchy and arrangements this euphoric, it's hard to see that as a drawback.
Earle Brown — Folio and Four Systems (2006, TZ8028)
An all-star cast of musicians (including Merzbow, singer Joan La Barbara, and members of Zs) performs pieces by open form composer Earle Brown. A line-up this stacked really couldn't fail; thankfully its talents have gone to Brown, who I think is woefully underrated.
Jim O’Rourke — Terminal Pharmacy (1995, TZ7011)
A great place to start if you're mostly familiar with O'Rourke's singer-songwriter work and wanna get into his instrumental (particularly electroacoustic) material, which seems to be where his passion really lies.
20 Years of Tzadik (Favorite Releases)
CommentYuka Honda — Memories Are My Only Witness (2002, TZ7703)
An album of quirky, trip hop-esque beats from Cibo Matto's Yuka Honda. The perfect soundtrack for a lazy overcast day.
Ikue Mori — One Hundred Aspects of the Moon (2000, TZ7055)
One Hundred Aspects of the Moon, inspired by woodblock artist Yoshitoshi and comprised of 15 compositions for chamber ensemble, found drum machine innovator Ikue Mori going in a drastically different direction from her ‘90s releases and immediately became one of her most evocative efforts in her 20+ year career.
Annie Gosfield — Burnt Ivory and Loose Wires (1998, TZ7040)
Just look at this cover and you'll pretty much get it. Influenced by microtonal and futurist techniques, Annie Gosfield brings glorious musical destruction and births something new among the wreckage.
Wu Fei — Yuan (2008, TZ8063)
I hope to hear more from Wu Fei soon. Yuan, her latest project, is a moody take on Chinese folk music and continues her reinvention of the guzheng.
Marc Ribot - Asmodeus: Book of Angels, Vol. 7 (2007, TZ7362)
An especially wild installment of Zorn’s Book of Angels series performed by guitarist Marc Ribot, bassist Trevor Dunn, and drummer Calvin Weston, all of whom sound completely out of control and could really take it down a notch.
20 Years of Tzadik (Favorite Releases)
2 CommentsHa-Yang Kim — Threadsuns (2014, TZ9008)
Ha-Yang Kim's sophomore album Threadsuns, a transcendent piece for string quartet, is absolutely among the most beautiful and impressive classical works of the past decade or two.
Haino Keiji/Yoshida Tatsuya — Uhrfasudhasdd (2008, TZ7265)
While it may be tamer than guitarist/vocalist Keiji Haino and drummer Tatsuya Yoshida's previous team-up New Rap, which contains some of the most unhinged noise rock you'll hear in your life, you still better hold onto something while listening to Uhrfasudhasdd. Otherwise its off-kilter avant-prog riffs and kaleidoscopic explosions of sound might knock you right on your ass.
Ruins — Hyderomastgroningem (1995, TZ7202)
From Tatsuya Yoshida's legendary drums/bass duo! Again, you're gonna want to grab a hold of something when you blast this.
John Zorn — Bar Kokhba (1996, TZ7108-2)
Of course Zorn's greatest chamber jazz and klezmer work had to make the cut.
Harry Partch — 17 Lyrics of Li Po (1995, TZ7012)
Finally, my favorite Tzadik release. Cellist Ted Mook and baritone opera singer Stephen Kalm bring to life for the first time the complete 17 Lyrics of Li Po, an early piece from microtonal composer Harry Partch written for adapted viola and intoning voice and based on the texts of 8th century Chinese poet Li Po. It simply does it for me.
And there you have it. If you're digging what you're hearing, it's my hope that you'll delve into the label's back catalog, which I've neglected to say is arranged into several series. Clearly I have a little bias toward the "Composer" and "New Japan" ones, but you might get more out of the others, including "Spotlight," which features up-and-coming bands, or the newly launched "Spectrum," which will be covering a wide array of sounds.
At any rate, thanks for reading! John Zorn. Downtown. Tzadik. Forever!
2023 Update A new comment reminded me of this article’s existence lol. But yeah, Tzadik has finally gone to streaming this year and it’s nice that all this music is now much more widely available. Have updated the listening links, so now they should all work again. Looking back on this list, it actually holds up decently apart from the writing being kinda cringeworthy. But the picks are generally good, many of them still pretty overlooked. I did change the Ribot pick tbh cause I didn’t really care for that Yo! album. If I have one other caveat it’d be the Bailey choice, as Standards has become not just my favorite album of his, but an all-time fave. Definitely don’t hate the shoutout for Carpal Tunnel though, which is a powerful swansong in its own right. Standards and The Advocate with Tony Oxley are more like moving postscripts. As my love of guitar has grown in the past decade, so too has my love for Derek’s work across the board, so just wanted to put that out there.
If you’ve just stumbled upon this article, have a great day. Week even.
Les Rhinocéros - "Coltun's Pinky Crusher"
New TracksD.C. experimental rock/avant-garde jazz trio Les Rhinocéros drops its third album today via Tzadik. Try a cut from it above.
Hypercolor - Self-Titled
New Tracks1 Comment<a href="http://hypercolorband.bandcamp.com/album/hypercolor">Hypercolor by Hypercolor</a> Hypercolor is a NYC trio making its self-titled debut on "downtown" figurehead John Zorn's Tzadik imprint later this month. Unsurprisingly, the threesome comprised of guitarist Eyal Maoz, bassist James Ilgenfritz, and drummer Lukas Ligeti (all of whom are accomplished composers and improvisers) delivers the label's trademark brand of controlled improvisation. However, the band's deceptively simple setup proves to be another welcome take on Zorn's "game piece" mentality; the result a work of frantic jazz-rock that courts entropy for the entirety of its playtime. This act is aptly named - Hypercolor will likely be among the most vibrant blasts of rock music this year.
Look out for this thing, due to drop 15 January via Tzadik.