Artist: Marc Ribot / Shrek
Album: Yo! I Killed Your God
Year: 1999
Line-up: Christine Bard – drums
Dougie Bowne – drums
J. D. Foster – guitars
Roger Kleiner – guitars
Francois Lardeau – drum programming
Jim Pugliese – drums
Marc Ribot – guitars, vocals
Sebastian Steinberg – bass
Mark Anthony Thompson – bass,
sequencer
Chris Wood - bass
Label: Tzadik
”Yo! I killed your
god
That's what this
machine gun is for
Throw away your image
Throw away your books
Keep away me with your
metaphor”
Marc
Ribot is one the most outstanding guitar players of our times as well
as one the most underrated ones unfortunately. What Ribot lacks in
virtuosity and technicality he makes up more than enough in
originality. His vast body of work has touched on various styles
ranging from free jazz to classical music, from Cuban music to
klezmer and from film soundtracks to punk rock. In addition to being
a prolific band leader Marc Ribot has worked extensively as session
musician performing and recording with such artists as Tom Waits,
John Zorn, Jack McDuff, Wilson Pickett, Elvis Costello, Elton John
and Robert Plant & Alison Krauss to name a few.
”I've just fried my
fourth amplifier of the month
and this song is called
Softly as in a Morning Sunrise”
Shrek
was Ribot's own short-lived group which was active only for eighteen
months between 1992 and 1994. In 1999 the legendary saxophone player,
composer, record producer and personal friend of Ribot, John Zorn put
a record together consisting of various live performances of Shrek
in various different venues in the States and in Japan. Released
under the controversial title of one of the featured songs, Yo! I
Killed Your God captures Ribot at his wildest, rawest, most powerful
and versatile. The band and its music is associated the No Wave
moment but the wide range of influences on this record include punk
(the title song which is a powerhouse avant-punk tune), experimental
rock (a cover of The Wind Cries Mary
of Jimi Hendrix is almost unrecognisable from the original), noise
(the burst of mayhem in Expressionless),
jazz (an interesting take on the jazz standard Softly as in
a Morning Sunrise from 1928
which showcases Ribot's innovative side as jazz improviser), Cuban
music (a fairly conventional take on the cuban classic Jamon
con Yucca), spoken word (cynical
rants on I Fall to Pieces, Clever White Youths with
Attidude provided by Ribot
himself with an indifferent voice) and modern classical music
(various composed pieces on the album).
”Clever white youths
with attidude
that's what the world
needs today
singing songs about the
alien nation
hey hey”
That
said, in the case of Yo! I Killed Your God it is almost impossible to
sum up the whole album in short. This album is just all over the
place, but it never loses its focus. You could say that the core of
the album lies on the No Wave movement which took various musical
genres and filtered them through punk aesthetics. Everything is
played through frantic bass, maniacal drums and, most notably,
searing, raw and harsh electric guitars. The guitar playing of Marc
Ribot has always come across as truly artistic: the eternal battle
between the artist and his instrument, struggling to force the
instrument to give a voice to the artist, a life to his art and a
manifestation of his creative vision. This album captures the birth
pains of playing an instrument, being punk, being high culture, being
innovative, being primitive, being traditional, being original –
being nothing. Definetely a difficult listening, but extremely
rewarding.
I would
give this album the rating of double motherfucker. Yo! Check this
shit out:
Written
by Παναγιωτιης
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