ASTRONOME

From the two albums John Zorn released with the line-up of Patton, Dunn and Baron in 2006, Astronome is clearly the better one. Although the album consists of 3 songs ranging from 12 to 17 minutes long, this one is actually more "focused" than the previous one which had shorter songs, but wandered way too much.

Astronome starts quickly and with a bang. The first thing one notices is that the album is more rockier than the previous one and in a good way. It's still avant-garde, but this one keeps you interested with some great and uncommon time signatures. In Moonchild, the vocals was the spotlight and the main instrument while the other two members backed him up. In Astronome everyone is given the same attention without showing-off, except for Mike Patton, but that's what he always does and why we know and love about him. The other instruments sound more impressive than the previous album. The guitar sounds more in family with the other two members and the drums are as good as in Moonchild, if not better. The album does has some quiet parts between the madness, but they're more interesting than in Moonchild since Mike takes advantage of it to make some even-weirder sounds (at one time he sounds like if he's trying to vomit and in others as if he was choking in water!). Again, one can't help but laugh at him doing this crazy stuff with his voice sounding like a crazy cartoon screaming and babbling gibberish. There are some good hooks in the album too and it also has some recurring themes as opposed to their previous album and it shows that it's more focused. One can actually head bang to some of this stuff, but it'll be funny as hell seeing someone actually doing it.

This is definitely a worthy listen for fans of Fantomas, the rockier side of Zorn and Mike Patton. Although it's still very hard to recommend for fans of progressive rock as a whole, this album can be surely recommended for fans of avant-garde and the weird side of music.