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
Mirage cover

Mirage

Klaus Schulze
Dimensional Stardust cover

Dimensional Stardust

Exploding Star Orchestra, Rob Mazurek
Apex cover

Apex

Bunky Green, Jason Moran, Rudresh Mahanthappa
Away with You cover

Away with You

Mary Halvorson Octet
Compassion cover

Compassion

Linda Oh, Tyshawn Sorey, Vijay Iyer
Frances the Mute cover

Frances the Mute

The Mars Volta
Learning to Cope with Cowardice cover

Learning to Cope with Cowardice

Mark Stewart & The Maffia
Theirs cover

Theirs

Thumbscrew