Electric Masada – At The Mountains Of Madness (2005)

June 13, 2024

The concept of “Grails” is probably overused in this record collecting renaissance age (or should I say over-memed?). This Electric Masada album however, was a grail of sorts for me. It has always remained tantalisingly out of reach; a mysterious Zorn-led experimental jazz supergroup consisting of a who’s who of the avant-garde elite which I could not ever hear. I refused to pay £25/£30 for a Tzadik import, it wasn’t available on streaming services, and my piece of shit Chromebook could not run the seeker of souls. What do then?

Long story short, I have now had the pleasure of finally being able to digest this album in its entirety, and boy was it worth the wait. I’m not sure how interesting my story is (not at all, I would suspect) but the anticipation I had for this thing before pressing play for the first time was absolutely unreal. I can happily confirm it’s up there with Kamasi Washington’s The Epic, Mr. Bungle’s Disco Volante, fuck even Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew, Big Fun, Jack Johnson… what I’m saying is that I rate this slab of impenetrable jazz goodness. Every last fucking second of it. It’s probably best, in this absolutely fucking pointless review, if I let the music do the talking, as truly it is beyond words – at least, words that I have the brainpower to adequately conjure.