Torture Garden cover

Torture Garden

Released

Naked City’s self-titled debut included 11 “hardcore miniatures,” mind-blastingly fast pieces that combined snippets of conventional music styles (reggae, country, lounge jazz) with ultra-intense thrash for anywhere between eight and 40 seconds. Torture Garden, released on the Shimmy-Disc label when Elektra Nonesuch balked, included all of those, and added 31 more; the longest, “Osaka Bondage,” runs 1:14, while “Hammerhead” is a mere eight seconds. This may be the most exciting, nerve-jangling 25:46 of music ever recorded.

Phil Freeman

Suggestions
Funky Donkey, Vols. 1 & 2 cover

Funky Donkey, Vols. 1 & 2

Luther Thomas, Saint Louis Creative Ensemble, Human Arts Ensemble
The 5th Power cover

The 5th Power

Lester Bowie
Echoes cover

Echoes

Fire! Orchestra
Black Fire cover

Black Fire

Andrew Hill
Dirge cover

Dirge

Wormrot
SuperBigmouth cover

SuperBigmouth

Chris Lightcap
Good Days cover

Good Days

Chicago Underground Quartet
Freya cover

Freya

Tineke Postma