Naked City: Torture Garden

This band was basically a composition workshop. When I stopped writing for the band, we broke up. Compositionally the challenge I set for myself was to see how much I could come up with given the limitations of the simple sax, guitar, keyboard, bass, drums format. - John Zorn

As mentioned in prior posts, I took a liking to extreme music. Something about growing up in middle America, bored adolescence and over all frustration with a small town that I grew up in.

At some point, a friend of mine in 92 introduced me to Naked City. Knowing that I enjoyed fast, brutal sounds, he thought Torture Garden would be an interesting listen for me, to say the least.

In 1988, Naked City was born. Featuring Zorn on saxophone, Bill Frisell on guitars, Fred Frith on bass, Wayne Horvitz on keys, Joey Baron on drums and occasional vocals from Yamatsuka Eye, Bob Dorough, and later Mike Patton.

In the early 80's, Zorn established himself with the New York downtown musical movement. Although he primarily was playing jazz, he had a respect for brutal hardcore and metal. Such appreciation of hardcore bands like Agnostic Front and Napalm Death, along with his other influences, experimented with compositional form and cover versions.

What you would expect from a Naked City release would be Jazz then at a moments notice, pure white noise, then to Country then to Grindcore or Death Metal. The compositions were so tight and flat out brilliant in my eyes.

Along with this brutality, it became signature of Zorn to use very disturbing imagery. One album cover depicted a live execution of a young woman in Asia being hacked, sliced and mutilated by the general public. Of course, the poor woman was conscience. Another cover shows a severed head from an autopsy and another, a mob style killing showing the victim face down on the pavement in his own pool of blood. Perfect for the sound of Naked City, if you ask me.

This record is a crazy roller coaster of genre mash ups. Give it a listen. Its fun!

Torture Garden



1. Blood Is Thin - 1:04
2. Demon Sanctuary - 0:42
3. Thrash Jazz Assassin - 0:49
4. Dead Spot - 0:35
5. Bonehead - 0:56
6. Speedball - 0:40
7. Blood Duster - 0:18
8. Pile Driver - 0:38
9. Shangkuan Ling-Feng - 1:19
10. Numbskull - 0:32
11. Perfume of a Critic's Burning Flesh - 0:29
12. Jazz Snob Eat Shit - 0:28
13. The Prestigitator - 0:48
14. No Reason To Believe - 0:28
15. Hellraiser - 0:42
16. Torture Garden - 0:40
17. Slan - 0:26
18. Hammerhead - 0:12
19. The Ways of Pain - 0:36
20. The Noose - 0:13
21. Sack of Shit - 0:49
22. Blunt Instrument - 0:56
23. Osaka Bondage - 1:18
24. Igneous Ejaculation - 0:25
25. Shallow Grave - 0:43
26. Ujaku - 0:32
27. Kaoru - 0:55
28. Dead Dread - 0:49
29. Billy Liar - 0:15
30. Victims of Torture - 0:27
31. Speedfreaks - 0:52
32. New Jersey Scum Swamp - 0:44
33. S & M Sniper - 0:17
34. Pigfucker - 0:27
35. Cairo Chop Shop - 0:26
36. Fuck the Facts - 0:15
37. Obeah Man - 0:21
38. Facelifter - 1:00
39. N.Y. Flat Top Box - 0:46
40. Whiplash - 0:23
41. The Blade - 0:43
42. Gob of Spit - 0:23