Naked City - Torture Garden
Record Label: Shimmy Disc
Release Date: August 19, 1993 (Re-Issue with Leng Tch'e, originally released sometime in 1990)
If you thought bands like The Number Twelve Looks Like You, Cryptopsy, and The Dilinger Escape Plan were too quaint and extreme for you, then Naked City's compilation album is something to steer clear of, because Naked City is the most experimental, technical, and freeform band ever constructed. But hey, what do you expect when you combine an avant-garde saxophonist with a Japanese noise-punk band and throw in grindcore elements to make things fun? What you get is full blown explosion.
Tracks like "Bonehead" (the grind song in the American version of "Funny Games") incorporate John Zorn's talent with the saxophone to emulate a screeching sound while Yamatsuka Eye pretends to have been shot in the recording studio, as he generates howls, barks, groans, screeches, screams, and tortures himself (pun intended) and his voice.
Other tracks switch from this harsh raucous noise to freeform jazz tracks. Others experiment with both genres and incorporate keyboards and solos, which is shocking considering that no song is longer than a minute and a half, leading to a forty-two track, twenty-six minute album. The songs subsequently blur into each other. However, no track is boring, not even the eight second "Hammerhead."
While the vocals are abrasive, new and passionate (but will often turn off first-time listeners as they sound like pure pain being unleashed upon us poor souls in an aural form of assault), and while the instrumentation is highly technical, proficient, rapid, and skillful, there are no lyrics. This is highly stereotypical, and I'm left to wonder if this was pure laziness, a realization of the band's lack of lyrical ability, or if it's actually a pro. But besides these few cons, the benefits overwhelm the album and lead to a successful effort from a truly original band.
It wasn't supposed to ever be lyrical. He wanted to see how far he could push jazz mixed with thrash, and this album is the result of that. The other naked city albums don't really even sound like this one.
It wasn't supposed to ever be lyrical. He wanted to see how far he could push jazz mixed with thrash, and this album is the result of that. The other naked city albums don't really even sound like this one.
I know, I have all of their other albums. I put this at the top of my N.C. list with Grand Guignol in a close second.
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