Details
Track Listing
1. Batman
2. Sicilian Clan, The
3. You Will Be Shot
4. Latin Quarter
5. Shot in the Dark, A
6. Reanimator
7. Snagglepuss
8. I Want to Live
9. Lonely Woman
10. Igneous Ejeculation
11. Blood Duster
12. Hammerhead
13. Demon Sanctuary
14. Obeah Man
15. Ujaku
16. Fuck the Facts
17. Speedball
18. Chinatown
19. Punk China Doll
20. N.Y. Flat Top Box
21. Saigon Pickup
22. James Bond Theme, The
23. Den of Sins
24. Contempt
25. Graveyard Shift
26. Inside Straight
Album Notes
Personnel: John Zorn (alto saxophone); Yamatsuka Eye (vocals); Wayne Horvitz (keyboards); Bill Frisell (guitar); Fred Frith (bass); Joey Baron (drums).
This record is an exercise in beautiful, torturous, perfect anarchy. Naked City, the early '80s project of super-experimentalist John Zorn, was a band that consisted of New York downtown avant giants Bill Frisell, Wayne Horvitz, Fred Frith and Joey Baron. With Zorn's elastic sax blazing the trail, and occasional guest vocals by Yamatsuka Eye (whose style bears no slight resemblance to the Tasmanian Devil of Warner Brothers cartoon fame), Naked City literally seem as if they can do anything. Rock, jazz, heavy metal, film music, swing, country, surf noir and sheer sonic assault are deconstructed, jumbled, spliced and spit back backwards with style, finesse, aggression and virtuosity.
The group's originals range from jump-cut collage to splatter-core noise, but what their aesthetic lacks in coherency it makes up for in imagination and execution. Particularly noteworthy are the band's many covers, which include treatments of Ennio Morricone, Henry Mancini, Johnny Mandel, John Barry and a mind-blowing cover of Ornette Coleman's "Lonely Woman" (Coleman is an enormous influence on Zorn). Zorn and Naked City take the meaning of punk to a new level: mixing its attitude with intelligence and pan-genre sampling to create music of the highest and most challenging order.
Industry Reviews
3.5 Stars - Very Good Catch your breath when you can.
Rolling Stone (06/28/1990)
Ranked #45 in Mojo's The 50 Most Out There Albums Of All Time - NAKED CITY's debut saw him squeeze jazz, country, film music and eight under-50-second blasts of Jap-noise into his musical meat grinder.
Option ...a dream band of jazz and new music luminaries.
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