BAPHOMET

Trying to understand what John Zorn makes is like finding a straw of hay in a stack of needles while blind and armless, while in an active warzone, whilst covered in molasses. To put it bluntly, it is really hard to even know what this strange man is gonna do next, or what he even did after listening to his music. Simply put, his music is the definition of a fever dream. I have heard plenty of artists who try their hand at more weirder, surreal directions in their musical catalogs, but John Zorn just has a different type of dog in him that puts David Sylvian and Mike Patton to stupefaction. One moment he is making a chamber jazz album involving Jewish harmonies and rhythms, then next make a surf rock smooth jazz record, then make a brutal progressive metal album that is more manic than Sleepytime Gorilla Museum's entire discography, and then go back to making Jewish chamber jazz music.

To say John Zorn is mad would be like saying water is wet or that fire is hot. I guess this is also why I kinda love his music, though. He's all over the place, making every record I listen to feel like an experience. While I may not consider all of his works to be winners, they never made me click away just by how intriguing they really are. This year I decided to just listen to what he has brought to the table. Earlier I got a taste of his more brutal prog style thanks to Spinoza. While Spinoza intrigued me on this whimsical human being, I think Baphomet is what made me want to ride this roller coaster a bit further.

Like many long working artists, John Zorn has a knack for making a lot of long songs, especially proggy epics. However, sometimes he likes to make and release albums that are just one song, usually 30-40 minutes long, and that is what Baphomet is. It is a 39 minute extravaganza of avant-prog excitability.

The whole track is never-not exciting to me. While I certainly have gotten quite familiar with it in recent times, I still cannot deny its force upon me each time I listen. No minute on here is wasted, with each bit of the work out feeling like a purebred experience. Even within the more quieter moments, my mind feels a sense of thrill when hearing each little bit of this epic. Not even within its end does it let up, giving a conclusion that feels as monstrous and foreboding as the title describes. It is pure instrumental prog fun, and certainly a top dog within the more extreme works of The Mars Volta and Ruins to me.

I guess if there is a critique I can give is that it does not include Zorn's saxophone skills. Now obviously not every John Zorn release gives him saxophone duties, since he is a lot more of a composer, much like Bach or Mozart, but I think some delicious saxophone workings could go well. Maybe after the calm, surfy rock bit in the middle can include a massive saxophone solo on top of the extreme guitar, keyboard, and drum workout. This is kind of why I slightly prefer Spinoza over this. Both are certainly on equal grounds of amazing records, but I think if I wanna introduce someone to the crazy 4-d chess of John Zorn, I probably would say Spinoza is the way to go as it feels like a proper introduction to both Zorn's skills as a composer, but also a saxophonist.

Baphomet is one of many, many ideas of John Zorn that has been crafted through his long life of works. While it personally isn't his all time finest work to me (still looking for that Zorn masterpiece), calling it anything but an amazing record would be putting the 39 minutes of grand music to shame. It is a record I think anyone with a more crazy backbone should check out, especially those who may already be familiar with what John Zorn can make. It's a dramatic routine of madness.