Grand Guignol (album)

Grand Guignol
Studio album by Naked City
Released 1992
Recorded 1989 and 1992
Genre Free jazz
Experimental rock
Jazzcore
Grindcore
Length 62:00
Label Avant Avan 002
Producer John Zorn
Naked City chronology

Torture Garden
(1990)		 Grand Guignol
(1992)		 Heretic
(1992)
John Zorn chronology
Buried Secrets
(1992)		 Grand Guignol
(1992)		 Elegy
(1992)

Grand Guignol is the second full-length studio album released by John Zorn's band Naked City in 1992 on the Japanese Avant label. The album followed Torture Garden, which was a compilation of "hardcore miniatures" from Naked City and Grand Guignol. The album is notable for the inclusion of cover versions of pieces written by classical composers, the guest vocal of Bob Dorough, and also, like Torture Garden, a selection of "hardcore miniatures" (tracks 9-41) which are intense, fast-tempo, brief compositions, which feature the wailing of Zorn's alto sax, and the screams of Yamatsuka Eye.

The album was also released as part of Naked City: The Complete Studio Recordings on Tzadik Records in 2005.

Reception

The Allmusic review by Ted Mills awarded the album 4 stars stating "Naked City's follow up to their self-titled album is a departure from the New York noir that they had perfected... A rewarding album".[1]

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic [1]

Track listing

All compositions and arrangements by John Zorn, except where noted.
  1. "Grand Guignol" – 17:41
  2. "La cathédrale engloutie" – 6:24 (Claude Debussy)
  3. "Three Preludes Op. 74: Douloureux, déchirant" – 1:17 (Alexander Scriabin)
  4. "Three Preludes Op. 74: Très lent, contemplatif" – 1:43 (Scriabin)
  5. "Three Preludes Op. 74: Allegro drammatico" – 0:49 (Scriabin)
  6. "Prophetiae Sybillarum" – 1:46 (Orlande de Lassus)
  7. "The Cage" – 2:01 (Charles Ives) - Featuring Bob Dorough
  8. "Louange à l'éternité de Jésus" – 7:08 (Olivier Messiaen)
  9. "Blood Is Thin" – 1:02
  10. "Thrash Jazz Assassin" – 0:47
  11. "Dead Spot" – 0:33
  12. "Bonehead" – 0:54
  13. "Piledriver" – 0:36
  14. "Shangkuan Ling-Feng" – 1:16
  15. "Numbskull" – 0:31
  16. "Perfume of a Critic's Burning Flesh" – 0:26
  17. "Jazz Snob: Eat Shit" – 0:26
  18. "The Prestidigitator" – 0:46
  19. "No Reason to Believe" – 0:28
  20. "Hellraiser" – 0:41
  21. "Torture Garden" – 0:37
  22. "Slan" – 0:24
  23. "The Ways of Pain" – 0:33
  24. "The Noose" – 0:13
  25. "Sack of Shit" – 0:46
  26. "Blunt Instrument" – 0:56
  27. "Osaka Bondage" – 1:17
  28. "Shallow Grave" – 0:42
  29. "Kaoru" – 0:53
  30. "Dead Dread" – 0:48
  31. "Billy Liar" – 0:13
  32. "Victims of Torture" – 0:24
  33. "Speedfreaks" – 0:50
  34. "New Jersey Scum Swamp" – 0:44
  35. "S/M Sniper" – 0:17
  36. "Pigfucker" – 0:24
  37. "Cairo Chop Shop" – 0:25
  38. "Facelifter" – 0:57
  39. "Whiplash" – 0:22
  40. "The Blade" – 0:30
  41. "Gob of Spit" – 0:21

Personnel

Liner notes

Decades before our modern tradition of Splatter films, The Grand Guignol served up torture, incest, blood lust, insanity, mutilation and death to generations of fervid spectators. But The Grand Guignol is not simply the theater of horror that shocked Paris for sixty-five years from 1897 to 1962. It is the celebration of the darker side of our existence. It has always been with us. It always will be.
Throughout history, Artists have been obsessed with humanities Taboos and Phobias: Aristotle, Aeschylus, Shakespeare, Sade, Goya, Poe, Dalí, Bataille, Hitchcock, Irving Klaw, Bacon, Dan Oniroku, H.G. Lewis, Hermann Nitsch, Carcass. Our fascination with Fear, Terror and Evil, like Death itself, knows no racial, cultural or religious barriers. It resides in our collective unconscious, binding us together with ropes we try, but are ultimately unable to sever. Only through violent trauma, or the convulsive viscera of artistic vision does it rise to the surface, reminding us that it has, in truth, been there all along.

This album is lovingly dedicated to Jack Smith. Legendary filmmaker, theatrical genius, exotic art collector. Father of the New York Underground, who died a victim of the AIDS virus September 25, 1989.

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Mills, T. Allmusic Review accessed July 22, 2011