Scott Walker - "Any Day Now"

On Any Day Now, Scott Walker tackles some real garbage material and spins what little gold he can from overwrought arrangements of sub-standard cover material. Really, what possessed the man who wrote "Plastic Palace People" to cover Bread's saccharine "If"? Or how about how the orchestration almost completely overpowers him at the end of Paul Anka's "Do I Love You?" Or his affecting a Caribbean patois to match with the tepid pseudo-reggae rhythms of "Maria Bethania"? There is not one original composition on display on Any Day Now, and for an artist who is responsible for absolute masterpieces like Scott 2 and Scott 4 to turn in an album of material this lackluster shows both the cruel machinations of the record industry and true contempt for one's fans. For when you come down to it, this album practically screams "contractual obligation." This is lazy music that aims to satisfy only the lowest common denominator. At the same time though, Walker possesses one of the few truly great voices, and there are flashes of genius in his singing here. "When You Get Right Down to It" showcases his voice especially well, his soaring tenor transcending the banality of the lyrics and creating a performance to rival any of his '60s material. His tough-guy affectations on "Ain't No Sunshine" sound like an influence on Johnny Mathis' lunatic-disco cover of "Night and Day." This album remains, however, best suited to the hardcore fan, and can be safely passed by for everyone else.

Painkiller - "Collected Works"

John Zorn teams up with Bill Laswell and Scorn's Mick Harris to form Painkiller, who take Naked City's jazz-thrash template as a launching point, and then leap into the outer reaches of dub and improvised free jazz. This set, as advertised, contains the early EPs, Guts of a Virgin and Buried Secrets, their sole full-length, the double-disc Execution Ground, and a live concert recorded in Osaka in 1994 and featuring Boredoms vocalist Yamatsuka Eye on several tracks. Disc one is a curious exploration of the disparate strands of music that the trio would spin into improvisatory gold on Execution Ground. The hardcore blast jazz of Guts and Buried Secrets are interspersed with longer improvisations that span from ambient to dub, all anchored by Laswell's solid bass. "Purgatory of Fiery Vulvas" is a highlight of this type of material, being one of few studio tracks featuring the unique vocals of Eye. Its brief 24 seconds contain the fury of Midwestern hardcore and the avant-garde sensibilities of SoHo jazz, but completely, recklessly out of control. Disc two contains longer-form improvisations, covering all of the bases that were laid down on the earlier EPs but extending the ideas out, exploring them, even jamming at some points. Disc three is just two tracks, ambient remixes of two tracks from Burial Ground, "Pashupatinath" and "Parish of Tama." Similar in tone and execution to Laswell's work as Divination or Harris' work as Lull, the ambient dirges on disc three fit safely and uncomfortably in the isolationist genre. "Parish of Tama (Ambient)" is reminiscent of Laswell's collaboration with Pete Namlook, Psychonavigation, stretching the original track, taking it into ambient dub territory, eschewing the ebb-and-flow of the original. The live disc is the only exclusive material to the set, and makes the entire set worth a go for fans who purchased the albums as they came out. On opener "Gandhamadana," Mick Harris' nimble drum work, traversing from his hardcore roots over to subtle jazz and back again, coupled with Laswell's signature bass triplets, form a fluid and sometimes grooving base for Zorn's patented squeal/skronk sax. "Bodkyithangga" sounds somewhat like Slayer covering John Coltrane's Interstellar Space, with Eye growling and chattering utter gibberish over the top. The encore, "Black Bile/Yellow Bile/Blue Bile/Crimson Bile/Ivory Bile" is a hilarious duet with Zorn and Eye that brings to mind the sound effects from Bugs Bunny cartoons scored by Carl Stalling.

AFX - "Chosen Lords"

Chosen Lords presents itself as an artist-collected précis of the entire 10-volume Analord series. Everyone who's heard all 40 tracks (and apparently there's over 10,000, according to the press release) would undoubtedly pick different tracks to include, but there are some that everyone should be able to agree on. To wit, "Boxing Day" is a highlight, sounding very much like it would have been a b-side to On, with its subtle percussion and cyclic melody. Opener "Fenix Funk 5" recalls the splattered beats of Drukqs' opener, "Jynweythek."

With over forty tracks in the original series to choose from, one would assume that there would be absolutely no filler on this record. Alas, there is. "Crying In Your Face" sounds like classic AFX, chilled beats, vocodered vocals, gentle synth washes. But it is just so un-compelling. Silence is just as memorable as this track. Same with "Klopjob," with its warped synth line and squiggling 303. Elements of classic AFX, right? On paper, yes. It has worked for him in the past (see Selected Ambient Works Vol. 1 for evidence), but fails to impress here.

This is both the problem with this record, and with the material that RDJ has released in this century. As bloated as Drukqs was, with almost half of the double-album being filler material, there was some decent material, if one looked for it hard enough. Same thing with Lords. The trouble though, is that some of the best tracks remain trapped on vinyl and are not included here. An example would be "I'm Self Employed," from Analord 6. Certainly there are others. Volumes 1, 2, and 9 are not represented.

Ultimately, Chosen Lords is hard to recommend because it feels incomplete. All the elements of greatness are present, but come together only sparingly, unlike RDJ's previous work. No new ground is broken here, and perhaps that was not the intent. But for an artist who so consistently raised the bar in the 1990s, to hear him merely resting on his laurels is simultaneously disheartening and maddening. Chosen Lords is neither the complete version of the series, nor is it a best-of collection. It is neither great nor awful, genius or asinine.