You never know what you're gonna get on a Tzadik record. Klezmer-meets-Ornette Coleman? Pure improvisational avant-garde noise? Film music? A postmodern update of Fiddler On The Roof?

This project is the collaborative effort of composer/performers Dafna Naphtali & Kitty Brazelton. There's a nice parallel here between label head John Zorn's jump cut style (check out the first Naked City release) and the bizarre sound pairings created on What Is It Like To Be A Bat?

As they say on their website:

"...on a montage of extremes:
textures hard/soft,
noises white/red,
harmony rooted/disembodied,
silence"

Both performers sing, play guitar (or bass) and employ various computer-related boxes. Third (and crucial, I think) group member Danny Tunick plays drums/percussion and also samples the living bejesus out of everything. Just to give you an idea of what this stuff sounds like: the first track begins with a kinda funny vocal howl...going into some industrial rock...followed by a little ambient bit...then silence...then industrial...repeat. The second track sounds like the Roches on acid. The third, Praxis run through the computer blender. Track four constructs a jazz riff out of a voice/guitar pairing. Number five is purely ambient, with lots of layered, processed voices.

Somehow this all ends up being far more organic (and sexy!) then you can imagine. That's probably due to the incredibly beautiful voices of Naphtali and Brazelton. They can go from hair-raising screams back down to a sensual whisper to operatic trills.

Wanna expand your musical horizons?...or clear the room? Check this one out.

(First posted on Mark Is Cranky)