Never thought I'd be stocking something from one of the guys in avant acid-jazz legends Medeski Martin & Wood. Then again, I never would have expected one of those guys to do something this goddamn heavy. And Simulacrum is the second album that I've picked up this year to include John Medeski - please, keep 'em coming. Much like John Zorn's The Last Judgment that came out earlier this year, this outfit delivers an enthralling mix of fusiony organ shred and aggressive prog, and it's been rattling the walls here ever since we got it in.

     On Simulacrum, Zorn is only present in a composing and conducting role, leading this power-trio assembled from the aforementioned Medeski on organ, guitarist Matt Hollenberg from prog-metallers Cleric, and drummer Kenny Grohowski, who has also played with the likes of Secret Chiefs 3 and avant black metallers Imperial Triumphant. The group is touted by Zorn as "the most extreme organ trio ever"; it's certainly a wild ride, their six instrumental songs careening through spazzy percussive onslaughts and grindcore-level blastbeat attacks, squalls of maniacal freeform guitar shred, and Medeski's stunning mix of virtuosic organ work and frenetic noise. Medeski's keyboard work is comparable to what he was doing on Last Judgment, but this stuff gets even more abrasive and aggressive. Songs like "Marmarath" fuse a near nonstop spew of psychedelic organ shred to crushing, progged-out bona fide death metal, splattering the fast-paced keyboards over a massive, almost Mehsuggah-esque groove. It's gotta be some of the heaviest stuff I've heard from this label in ages. There's also lots of violent free jazz squonk seeping out of this album, often hurtling into frenzied stop-on-a-dime arrangements and cacophonic energy that Naked City fans are going to dig.

     Medeski's keyboards are front and center, with a rich, warm tone that gives even the album's most pummeling sequences a sumptuous fusiony feel, and is the most distinguishing aspect of Simulacrum; take his keys out of this, and you'd have a mighty fine slab of modern instrumental math-metal. With those keys, though, the trio are transformed into something really unique, glowing with a weird nocturnal energy as those sweeping melodic keyboards and warm organ tones rush across the blasts of jazz-damaged heaviness. Parts of this almost head into Goblin-esque creep-prog, others slip into long passages of gorgeous, expansive melodic interplay between the musicians that stretch out for a while, echoing the most epic of 70's-era jazz fusion. Pretty far from the jammy, Phish-endorsed jazz funk you might expect from Medeski's presence - this stuff is more like Behold The Arctopus or something along those lines. Highly recommended to anyone into dark, heavy prog rock and metal-tinged jazz/prog weirdness of bands like Secret Chiefs 3, the Mick Barr/Weasel Walter collaborations, and the aforementioned Behold The Arctopus. Comes in a heavyweight casewrapped jacket.