Performed by the players recruited for Zorn's Electric Masada, this new album by the prolific composer is billed as a collection of instrumental fairy tales - and it's packaged as one too. Inside the gatefold digipak sleeve (which, by the way, looks like it might have been wallpaper pinched from some unfortunate three-year-old's bedroom) you'll find a collection of animal illustrations and stickers, which oddly, doesn't entirely represent the easy listening/jazz/surf rock fusions that populate this strange, strange album. 'Mow Mow' sounds like something The Ventures might have come up with in the late '50s/early '60s, coming perilously close to an excerpt from the Heartbeat soundtrack. The musicians manage to keep all this sounding vital and interesting however, with the likes of Marc Ribot, Jamie Saft, Trevor Dunn and Joey Baron all approaching the task at hand with vigour, while Zorn himself wails out on alto sax during the crazy progressions of 'Toys'. Ribot's soloing on 'Rakassa' sounds marvellously fluent too, boasting a kind of phrasing not too far removed from Nels Cline's virtuoso turns in Wilco. Once you come to terms with the initial oddness of it all, The Dreamers reveals itself as a massively enjoyable romp through various genres and musical disciplines.
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Performed by the players recruited for Zorn's Electric Masada, this new album by the prolific composer is billed as a collection of instrumental fairy tales - and it's packaged as one too. Inside the gatefold digipak sleeve (which, by the way, looks like it might have been wallpaper pinched from some unfortunate three-year-old's bedroom) you'll find a collection of animal illustrations and stickers, which oddly, doesn't entirely represent the easy listening/jazz/surf rock fusions that populate this strange, strange album. 'Mow Mow' sounds like something The Ventures might have come up with in the late '50s/early '60s, coming perilously close to an excerpt from the Heartbeat soundtrack. The musicians manage to keep all this sounding vital and interesting however, with the likes of Marc Ribot, Jamie Saft, Trevor Dunn and Joey Baron all approaching the task at hand with vigour, while Zorn himself wails out on alto sax during the crazy progressions of 'Toys'. Ribot's soloing on 'Rakassa' sounds marvellously fluent too, boasting a kind of phrasing not too far removed from Nels Cline's virtuoso turns in Wilco. Once you come to terms with the initial oddness of it all, The Dreamers reveals itself as a massively enjoyable romp through various genres and musical disciplines.
Performed by the players recruited for Zorn's Electric Masada, this new album by the prolific composer is billed as a collection of instrumental fairy tales - and it's packaged as one too. Inside the gatefold digipak sleeve (which, by the way, looks like it might have been wallpaper pinched from some unfortunate three-year-old's bedroom) you'll find a collection of animal illustrations and stickers, which oddly, doesn't entirely represent the easy listening/jazz/surf rock fusions that populate this strange, strange album. 'Mow Mow' sounds like something The Ventures might have come up with in the late '50s/early '60s, coming perilously close to an excerpt from the Heartbeat soundtrack. The musicians manage to keep all this sounding vital and interesting however, with the likes of Marc Ribot, Jamie Saft, Trevor Dunn and Joey Baron all approaching the task at hand with vigour, while Zorn himself wails out on alto sax during the crazy progressions of 'Toys'. Ribot's soloing on 'Rakassa' sounds marvellously fluent too, boasting a kind of phrasing not too far removed from Nels Cline's virtuoso turns in Wilco. Once you come to terms with the initial oddness of it all, The Dreamers reveals itself as a massively enjoyable romp through various genres and musical disciplines.
Performed by the players recruited for Zorn's Electric Masada, this new album by the prolific composer is billed as a collection of instrumental fairy tales - and it's packaged as one too. Inside the gatefold digipak sleeve (which, by the way, looks like it might have been wallpaper pinched from some unfortunate three-year-old's bedroom) you'll find a collection of animal illustrations and stickers, which oddly, doesn't entirely represent the easy listening/jazz/surf rock fusions that populate this strange, strange album. 'Mow Mow' sounds like something The Ventures might have come up with in the late '50s/early '60s, coming perilously close to an excerpt from the Heartbeat soundtrack. The musicians manage to keep all this sounding vital and interesting however, with the likes of Marc Ribot, Jamie Saft, Trevor Dunn and Joey Baron all approaching the task at hand with vigour, while Zorn himself wails out on alto sax during the crazy progressions of 'Toys'. Ribot's soloing on 'Rakassa' sounds marvellously fluent too, boasting a kind of phrasing not too far removed from Nels Cline's virtuoso turns in Wilco. Once you come to terms with the initial oddness of it all, The Dreamers reveals itself as a massively enjoyable romp through various genres and musical disciplines.