XAPHAN - BOOK OF ANGELS, VOL. 9

This isn't the first time Trey Spruance and John Zorn's musical trajectories have crossed - Zorn did in fact help produce the first Mr Bungle album - but this is surely their most intimate collaboration. Xaphan finds Secret Chiefs 3 turning their hands to adapting music from Zorn's Masada books of klezmer-derived compositions; this is, in fact, a conjunction of musical forces which makes perfect sense, since klezmer is one of the musical traditions Secret Chiefs 3 has dabbled with in previous albums. The band's technical abilities and diverse instrumentation ensures that the album distinctly sounds like them, whilst Zorn's compositions provide sufficiently meaty challenges for them to get their teeth into.

Because the compositions are all klezmer-based, Secret Chiefs 3 don't get to branch out into quite as many different musical styles as they do on their other albums, though I'm sure some listeners will consider this to be a good thing: what it lacks in diversity, Xaphan more than makes up for in consistency.