Golems of the Red Planet transforms John Zorn's Masada compositions into inventive surf rock, earning praise from Zorn himself.
One does have to wonder what substances Mark Allender might have ingested when he came up with the idea for the band Golems of the Red Planet and its first album, Surf Masada: The Compositions of John Zorn.
It's certainly an unusual idea, to be charitable. For the 10-song set, the Akron, Ohio-based quartet (which recently became a quintet) takes some of the pieces from New York musical auteur Zorn's Ashkenazi-influenced Masada albums and places them into surf-rock arrangements, spotlighting Harvey Gold's guitar and Matt Reese's cello. These are not cover versions, however; they're new works with fresh approaches, drawn from existing sources — what jazz saxophone great Wayne Shorter referred to as “completely new, totally familiar.â€
But certainly not obvious.
“I was a big fan of John Zorn's Masada project for a long time,†bassist Allender, 53, explains via Zoom alongside Gold. “And I was familiar with the surf group Meshugga Beach Party; they dress up like Hassidim and play surf music like traditional klezmer tunes. My thought was it would be great to do that with Masada, which is all these little tunes that are written with Ashkenazik melodies, the kind that are akin to your classic klezmer.â€
Allender acknowledges that he “didn't have any takers†for the unique idea when he first began pitching it about five years ago. But a mutual friend introduced him to Gold, who's been part of the critically acclaimed underground rock group Tin Huey since 1972 and has worked with a number of other bands, including Half Cleveland, Sally Spring and the HiFis. Gold, the Golems' only Jewish member, “found the idea fascinating†but had one caveat to join in.
“My thought was, ‘I'll do this, but I've got to be able to mess with the product,'†explains Gold, 73, who studied at the University of Akron's Firestone Conservatory of Music. “So, we always have our toe dipped in surf, somewhere, and we always respect the written music that [Zorn] did, which is very, very short snippets, and he expects people to expand on them and explode them. So we expanded and exploded to the point where we are not bored.â€
To realize Golems, Allender and Gold recruited Reese and drummer Bob Ethington, both of whom have extensive credits in ensembles such as Unit 5, Trial of Lucy and Flying Carpet People. Violinist Jen Singleton Richeson, meanwhile, joined after Surf Masada was recorded.
Gold, meanwhile, confesses he's “not a Zornophile†like Allender, but he feels that works to the Golems' advantage.
“I think he's great, and he's done some real astonishing stuff,†the guitarist says. “I was not very popular in the [Firestone school] department because my go-to's were either early Renaissance music on original instruments or (Karlheinz) Stockhausen and John Cage — and the middle ground was really where the music department lived. So, a lot of the Zorn stuff appeals to me like Morton Subotnick stuff did, and the Stockhausen. I find Zorn to be really edgy and interesting … and open to being interpreted.â€
Zorn, in fact, has given Golems his blessing for the group's approach on Surf Masada, which came out June 12. “So far, he has liked it all,†Gold reports, “which has made us really happy. In fact, the last song on our album (‘Belial') is a piece he actually sent to us and said, ‘Hey, guys, you want to take a swing at this?' which is very flattering.â€
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NEW TAKE ON ZORN'S MUSIC
Zorn's only requirement, Gold adds, is that “at some point in our interpretation of the piece, it needs to be true to the music that he wrote, from one end to the other, once. It doesn't have to start or be in the middle or be at the end, but we have to do it once. Sometimes we even do it twice.â€
The album “takes a lot of different forms†in doing that, according to Allender. For example, the opening track, “Hadriel,†Zorn's original is used as the opening sequence, “and then from there we put apart that melody and interpret it a lot of different ways.†The Golems also take two Masada songs, “Paschar†and “Tzofeh,†and merged them into one arrangement — at, Allender adds, great conceptual risk.
“We were in danger of losing our surf license on this one,†he acknowledges. “The initial tune is very dirge-like and slow. Harvey drenches that guitar with all the reverb in the world, which is what makes it surfy. Maybe it's not about the beach; maybe it's about getting over-exposed in the sun. But we found a way to tie it in so we can still call it surf.â€
Allender has actually been to Masada. His family spent six months in Israel — from January to June 1987 — while his father, now a retired Kent State University professor, was on a research sabbatical at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot. “I was 14 years old, which is a pivotal age,†says the bassist, who grew up in a secular household and attended a “Christian mega-church†in Akron during his youth. It was really foundational … having that experience of being in another culture. It couldn't not have an effect on me.â€
A great deal has changed for the Golems, meanwhile, since recording Surf Masada. At the outset, Gold “mandated†that it be a “studio-only†entity. “I wanted to be able to explore,†he explains. “I wanted to be able to lay down three or four or five guitar parts and bring in my Korg X5 (synthesizer) if I wanted to have a little ‘bing' come in somewhere … or we wanted to be able to double-track the cello, and not be worried about how many of us we needed on stage to reproduce it.†But his mind changed as recording proceeded.
“I decided that the one way I could stay invested in this is if we thought about playing it live,†Gold says. And so far, with Richeson — who's worked with Allender and Reese in other ensembles — in tow, Golems have performed in Akron and will be at Cleveland's Beachland Ballroom on June 19. “Thinking about all these songs and relearning parts that I did in the studio, I felt really energized by it, and the band just became energized,†Gold notes. “And maybe that's the moment we went from being a project to being a band.â€
The Golems are looking to play more shows, away from its home turf, and have started work on new material, both Zorn's and original material. During the Zoom, Allender and Gold each reveal to the other that they have fresh compositions to present. “I feel like we're more than just a John Zorn project now,†Gold says. “We are a band that likes working on this stuff together.â€
To which Allender adds, “We've developed a sound. Are we going to stay in the Ashkenazi tonality? I think there's going to be some element of that moving forward with what we do. Are we gonna be real rigid about it? We're playing with a lot of things, so possibilities are open. And that's exciting.â€
