Spy Vs. Spy (The Music Of Ornette Coleman) - John Zorn

Advantages: impossible, delicious, juicy, choatic, hellish, revolting.
Disadvantages: it doesn't go on forever.

...For some reason the picture Ciao have provided for this album is of some sort of radioactive ice cream rather than the Jackson Pollock painting that actually graces the album's cover. This isn't inappropriate though: like the best ice cream, "Free Jazz" is cool, delicious and of dubious origin. The subtitle, if you care about this sort of thing (and you should) is, "A collective improvisation by the Ornette Coleman double quartet". This matters enormously, because "double" is a word that doesn't occur nearly often enough in musical contexts, even now, 50 years into the stereo age. "Free Jazz" is a double album - but not two discs, to be played consecutively; rather one disc with two pieces of music to be played simultaneously. As with Lou Reed's own jazz album "Metal Machine Music", headphones are fundamental to the music... Read review

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Advantages: A lenghty, lazy and lovely festival of aromas and lyrical ambiences
Disadvantages: A bit too long, but then you could do with the sleep

.... The album is 120 times more inventive than anything Coldplay have ever done; 67% more satisfying than searching for the puma in Brian Eno's "Ambient 4: On Land" and could even beat Ornette Coleman at scrabble provided he was drunk enough. Buy it, because your CD collection is probably a bit dull.... Read review

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Advantages: Some great moments
Disadvantages: Some less great

...A lot of people yak on about a bands “difficult second album” but I don’t think Disco Volante was quite what they had in mind when they said that. See Mr. Bungle have created an album that’s difficult for the listener (One of the most difficult I own, though Fantômas - Book1 beats it by quite a way), quite how the band found it to make I don’t know. Disco Volante takes the established Mr Bungle formula of messed up scary circus ska found on the eponymously titled first album and bats it out the window with a deft touch from a badminton racket. Also gone is the previous albums co-producer and manic saxophone warrior, John Zorn. Bizarrely Bungles music has taken on more of a Zorn sound than the previous album as the saxophone takes on a somewhat stranger role. Also gone are the vaguely cheerful times from... Read review

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