Execution Ground

Execution Ground

Track Listings
Disc: 1

1. Parish of Tama [Ossuary Dub]

2. Morning of Balachaturdasi

3. Pashupatinath

Disc: 2

1. Pashupatinath [Ambient]

2. Parish of Tama [Ambient]

Tracks:

Parish of Tama [Ossuary Dub]
Morning of Balachaturdasi
Pashupatinath

Tracks:

Pashupatinath [Ambient]
Parish of Tama [Ambient]

Customer Reviews:

Best of the best!.......2003-07-22

Put Simply, this is the best Painkiller album there is. Fantastic! Fierce Bass, Hard-core Sax-chops, Furious Drumming - all to the delight of the ear. Free Rock, maybe? Emotional tunes that go places. Enjoy!

Intriguing, but not the best Zorn offering.......2002-04-17

I bought this disc because I have and love other John Zorn projects (Naked City, Masada), and I knew of Bill Laswell through his production work and great band Material.

I find Execution Ground to be full of interesting textures, bizarre rhythms, and insane drumming - plus plenty of shrieking sax, as one would expect. Although it's certainly intriguing, it falls short of Zorn's other projects for me. The long compositions seem directionless and the endless reverb and delays are a little hokey. I do like the second disc a little better, because the static feel naturally lends itself to the ambient mode, but overall I'd rather listen to Naked City or Material than Painkiller.

One of my all-time favorites........2001-08-23

This is music unlike anything i've heard (besides other Zorn stuff). The moment I put it in my CD player I am trapped, unable to tear myself away, or even divert my attention elsewhere. Especially the first three tracks. There's always something interesting going on. All three musicians deliver superb performances. Zorn doing his "torture victim" style of saxophone playing, and even more normal jazzy playing, to my favorite, that creepy microtonal phase that sounds like several torture victims. Harris manages to straddle these lengthy improvisations without just repeating a drum pattern over and over, he always varies the groundwork in interesting and occasionally attention-grabbing ways. And Laswell he seems to prefer to stay in the background most of the time, letting his simple bass lines create the perfect atmosphere for everyone else. I think the ambient disc works more on a subconscious level, so I try to do something else while it plays, and it certainly creates a different kind of ambience, not harsh noise, but not dreamy new-age stuff. If you can find it I highly suggest picking it up ... NOW!

Average customer rating:

You mean, you haven't heard PainKiller yet?

Execution Ground
Painkiller
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Hard Rock & Metal | Styles | Music
ASIN: B0000565W7

Customer Reviews:

You mean, you haven't heard PainKiller yet?.......2000-12-06

Take three recognized masters in their feilds, put them together, and usually you start hearing the term "supergroup" bandied about. Not so PainKiller, and I've never been able to figure out why. Saxophone legend John Zorn, bass-and-production guru Bill Laswell, and manic death-metal drummer Mick Harris (helped out sporadically by Justin Broadrick and Christian Green, collectively better known as Godflesh) combine to make some of the most dissonant melodic music since people started trying to combine dissonance and melody.

Where most PK recordings are chock full of rapidfire assaults on the senses, Execution Ground takes the methamphetamine-styled energy, channels it, and allows it expression in three long pieces (the second disc contains "ambient" remixes of two, but ambient is a relative term here; you'd never find this stuff noodling away on a Yanni disc). There will be those who contend that shorter is better for PK's unique combination of free jazz, death metal, and noise, but Execution Ground does things one better than that by using twisted, but classical, structures in each piece. If you can get through the dissonance, and the walls of sound, listening to Execution Ground bears more than a little resemblance to listening to Mahler, say, or earlier Copland pieces; recognizable themes crop up repeatedly with long bridges, etc.

Customer Reviews:

Wonderful set.......2004-10-24

This set is for serious piano fans, not for the ones who just start building up a CD library. I sort of agree with one of the reviewers, that there are many repetitions. But if you love piano, you wish to hear the same piece in different interpretations. Indeed, I really like this feature of this set: I can compare the style of various performers.
If you are into piano music, I encourage you to grab this set, if you can find it used (not available anymore at Amazon). I also hope, that there will be a continuation, in which other great pianists, who were left out because of the space limitation, will be included (Prokofiev, Bartok, Dohnanyi, etc).

Don't buy the whole thing.......2001-07-08

I've put a lot of thought into constructing my own piano library, and unless you can easily afford the present set, I would recommend a different approach to collecting piano music. This set emphasizes the piano player rather than the piano composer. Of course both are important. For example, the "Barcarolle" appears in this set EIGHT times. I'm sorry, although I love the piece, if I am going to spend [the money], I would prefer more variety. Where are the Alkan, Medtner, and Szymanawski compositions represented in this set? I appreciate having so many interpretations of the same pieces, but I would also appreciate more exposure to pieces not so popular. The selection by Philips which I consider a somewhat popular selection suggests to me that when Philips constructed this set, they realized most people would be buying the disks separately, and this affected the selection. And it's not just that obscure composers are left out, but also if one spends so much money on piano recordings, you'd think you'd want to buy pieces from a composer in completeness. For example, an alternative way to construct a library would be to combine purchases of complete cycles, e.g. complete Beethoven sonatas, complete Scriabin preludes, etc., along with outstanding recordings of more particular pieces. I'm not sure why someone would want to concentrate so much on so many famous artists, instead of acquiring complete sets of compositions. For me the composer is more important, or at least, if I am going to spend [the money]on piano recordings, I'd prefer more complete, rather than snapshot, exposure to the composers.

Not Insane.......2001-01-02

I had to write this review, as I am enthralled with this set. I have been going through it in order having already purchased a few individual units from the collection earlier. I am not sure what `insane' was talking about as there is NO repetition. Sure some pianists perform the same pieces, isn't that what they did in reality? The idea is to appreciate the different nuances and approaches taken by these artists. You will then enjoy these pieces from a better vantage.

It is a large ambitious contribution to the art of great piano playing. It is a labor of love and represents a tremendous amount of research and cooperation between many record companies. Rather then representing insanity, it is a resource to treasure.

Yes experts can quibble over who was left out, and what performances were inserted. I do not think such a massive undertaking could have been accomplished without someone being able to find faults. Overall however, unless you already have a monumental collection, (it would have to be almost legendary), this incredible set will give you a rewarding look into 74 of the greatest pianist of all time. You will come away with a honed sense of appreciation for your likes and dislikes. You will undoubtedly become someone who will search out recordings and be able to enjoy them for the rest of your life with a refined ear.

The only negative is this price. I would shop around, as it is daunting to spend 2 thousand dollars on such a collection. Of course you do get 200 CD's. However, the used collections might be good to consider.

Enjoy these masterpieces. I am not ashamed of owning this music as `insane' implies. I am proud to have enriched my life.

insane.......2000-10-12

This is not a good library of piano music. The reason is, there is too much repetition. I'm not saying the series is bad. The series is wonderful. But this collection as a whole is a bad libary. For the same money you could collect together (with more effort) an incredible libary of piano music. There are so many wonderful cd's out there, this is just a waste of money. If you can actually afford to spend 2 grand on piano music, then either (1) spend the time and do some research to get a good library of piano music, which will probably include some selections from this collection, or (2) hire someone to do that for you. Personally I would be embarrassed to own this whole collection, since that shows I have put little thought into my purchases of piano music.

For the real music lover.......2000-03-12

This series attempts to present important and representative performances by most of the major pianists of the 20th century. One might quibble a bit with the choices, but the works presented are of consistently high quality, and often do represent what may be the best works of a performer. Since this covers most of the time that recorded music existed, some of the recordings are technically challenged, as there is only so much one can do to enhance an old recording. Still, these appear to have been treated with love and respect in their restorations. Since this series is so large (and expensive!) one is tempted to "cherry pick" through the series, yet by doing so one can easily overlook gems by artists one is less familiar with. This large a set must inevitably have many versions of the same pieces, and takes many hours to listen to. The true enthusiast will appreciate the differences in interpretation, whereas the less experienced listener may find the set repetitive and overwhelming. If one has the time to really dig into this set, it can provide years of exploration and discovery. It would make a wonderful gift for some special music lover in your life ... or for yourself!

Average customer rating:

Best of the best!
Intriguing, but not the best Zorn offering
One of my all-time favorites.

Execution Ground
Painkiller
Manufacturer: Subharmonic
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Rock | Styles | Music

General | Hard Rock & Metal | Styles | Music

Indie Rock | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Experimental Music | Miscellaneous | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

Buried Secrets/Guts of a Virgin
Naked City

ASIN: B000003ZMW
Release Date: 1994-11-15

Tracks:

Parish of Tama [Ossuary Dub]
Morning of Balachaturdasi
Pashupatinath

Tracks:

Pashupatinath [Ambient]
Parish of Tama [Ambient]

Customer Reviews:

Best of the best!.......2003-07-22

Intriguing, but not the best Zorn offering.......2002-04-17

I bought this disc because I have and love other John Zorn projects (Naked City, Masada), and I knew of Bill Laswell through his production work and great band Material.

One of my all-time favorites........2001-08-23

Music Info: