It helps, I think, to imagine John Zorn as the rude one in this couple, and Fred Frith as the polite one. In their collaborations, as in their work outside those collaborations, alto saxophonist (and Tzadik label maven) Zorn waved a rude goodbye to listenability ages ago; his followers must now concentrate through barrages of ever-cascading sound shreds. Guitarist Frith, like Zorn, can produce most any timbre he cares to—but restricts himself, in this latest round of duets, to flat, broad, drone patterns, a grounding from which Zorn launches himself, falls back, breaks, and springs anew.
Armed with a raging soul harnessed to his mastery of technique, Zorn pulls one adroit line after another from his horn. The listener, having worked hard listening through the spiky soundscapes frontloaded on the disc, gets a reprieve with softer, lyrical interludes through the middle. Frith hangs in steadfastly throughout, declaring his mastery in a quieter and more mutable manner. The duo remains vigilant on the outpost of the avant-garde, sending home messages from a fascinating front.
Andrew Hamlin was born and raised in Seattle, Washington, USA, where he resides today. He attended the Evergreen State College in Olympia where he wrote and edited arts coverage for the Cooper Point Journal. He began writing professionally about music and the arts in 1992. He is the film critic for the Northwest Asian Weekly, and his work has appeared in the Village Voice, Rolling Stone Online, Seattle Times, San Diego Reader, Goldmine, Seattle Weekly, The SunBreak, and other publications.
He has still never found anyone who loves the Happy Flowers nearly so much as himself.