Continuing in the vein of the recent accessible John Zorn material (like Sholem Sholem) is Filmworks #23: El General original score to a documentary about the controversial Mexican dictator Plutarco Elias Calles from the early 20th century. El General is a welcome departure from klezmer (although we like it a lot) to more latino tinged music reminiscent of a cinematic and dramatic Los Cubanos Postizos mixed with John Zorn’s The Dreamers from last year.

Ribot’s guitar shines throughout the album but it would be a shame to not mention Rob Burger’s accordion, Kenny Wollesen’s vibes and Masada veteran Greg Cohen’s bass. The opener ‘Los Cristeros’ and the exquisite piano version (played by Rob Burger) of ‘Besos De Sangre’ will no doubt enter the Zorn Filmworks repertoire but there’s more to El General then those two. Zorn’s compositions translate the life of this dramatic man to music fittingly and I guess anyone who soldier dictas in the past will emphatise with it quickly. (and who hasn’t had a power hungry general in their history eh?)

The only down side is that there’s not too much change of tempo and style throughout the album as you would expect from a film score, and that only 3 songs are used on the actual film. Well, it’s true that these guys are on a league of their own, Zorn and co. make it seem effortless putting out tons of material like this which would top most of the output of indie bands this year. I know some people who’ll kill to compose songs like this instead of that 3 chord pop they’re peddling. Anyways enough ranting, it’s a decent addition to your John Zorn collection and I know you won’t miss it anyways. Check it out especially if you’ve always been scared of his “noisy” stuff, skip it if you haven’t liked his last few albums on the Film Works series. 3.5/5 subject to be 4