Chaos Magick

After nine albums (eight studio, one live) employing the jazz-metal trio Simulacrum, John Zorn added a second keyboardist, Brian Marsella, to the original lineup of organist John Medeski, guitarist Matt Hollenberg, and drummer Kenny Grohowski. The result is a music that’s spacy and psychedelic, with plenty of interplay between the two keyboardists and less of the thrash-metal riffing that propelled many Simulacrum compositions. In its quieter moments, this album may bring to mind the Doors or even the Moody Blues; of course, there are plenty of audio jump-cuts and sudden juxtapositions — this is still John Zorn we’re talking about.