Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz and John Zorn - Abraxas: The Book Of Angels Volume 19 (USA 2012)

More John Zorn

I kinda missed this one as I have been working my way back through the John Zorn Catalogue, due to the fact that I already had the CD in my collection, as I have all 19 volumes of the Book Of Angels, and I had been putting off reviewing these releases for some reason I can't quite explain. The whole series of John Zorn's second Masada Songbook has been blowing my mind for several years now and I always look forward to the next volume. Unlike Masada Book One, each volume of Book 2 is preformed by a different band or set of musicians, bringing their own style of music and their own interpretation of the songs. This has made for a wide range of music across the 19 volumes so far with hardly a dud amongst them.

So this volume is a mostly Hi-NRG mix of what might be called Klezmer Rock, it has that Masada feel but is firmly rooted in rock and leaning well towards the progressive end of that spectrum. As usual, the sound quality and the musicianship is outstanding and overall this is yet another most enjoyable addition to this series, but not one of my favourites and as a whole kinda wears thin over the full 44 minutes, there isn't any tracks that kinda stand out from the rest . So not at all bad but not something to rave about.Rating 3.5/5.