Search - Marc Ribot :: Requiem for What's His Name

Noise, not noise?

Adolph Pinelad | 08/30/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It takes a couple of listens to recognize that this album is genius. At first, it just seems dys-synchronous sounds thrown together with careless abandon. But on the third play, suddenly your head cocks to one side and aha! There it is! By the fifth time round, the underlying melodic flow and subtlety have you hooked, and you find yourself having copies shipped to friends and relatives. Ribot's humor and piquancy shine through on this album without the compromise of more marketable works."

Diverse influences

Allan MacInnis | Vancouver | 04/21/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Odd, to me, that, despite having worked with so many people (John Zorn, Tom Waits, you know the list) the influence that is most visible on this CD is that of John Lurie... Maybe its just that some of the other players on this disc also were Lounge Lizards (Roy Nathanson was, wasn't he? And Brad Jones, and Ralph Carney, and maybe some of these other guys... I don't think Anthony Coleman ever was -- his "Lamonte's Nightmare" appears here, which I BELIEVE he recorded elsewhere, with Roy Nathanson). Lurie has nothing to do with this disc per se, but there are some moments here where I feel like I'm listening to VOICE OF CHUNK. There are other, Shrekkier tunes, too, though -- "Commit a Crime" (the Chester Burnett blues tune) and "Yo I killed your God" are discordant and very guitarsy, for example. Ribot's ventures into writing "song"-songs have sharp edged witty lyrics, as before ("Clever White Youths," f'rinstance). The whole thing (the jazzier moments and the almost guitar-shred rockish moments and those other moments I won't describe for the sake of brevity) all coalesce into a pleasing whole. Good disc!"