''Shrek'' is a 1994 album by

Marc Ribot Marc Ribot (; born May 21, 1954) is an American guitarist and composer. His work has touched on many styles, including no wave, free jazz, rock, and Cuban music. Ribot is also known for collaborating with other musicians, most notably Tom Wait ...

recorded and released by the Japanese

Avant AVANT, also known as AVANT street art guerrilla collective, was the artist group active in New York City from 1980 to 1984. By 1984 AVANT had produced thousands of acrylic on paper paintings and plastered them on walls, doors, bus-stops and gallerie ...

label in 1994.

Recording

The album was recorded in New York City at Low Blood Studios. Ribot stated "I made ''Shrek'', which was finally a hit. It was the most purely compositional record I had made. It’s quasi-unlistenable. ... I never knew how many ''Shrek'' fans there were till I did Cubanos. They’re coming out of the woodwork.".

Reception

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

awarded the album 3 stars with reviewer Sean Cooper stating, "The group's debut shifts restlessly among animated jazz, rock, punk, and warped blues themes, filling the inevitable cracks with instrumental textures, minimal vignettes, and formless noise, similar in some respects to John Zorn's Naked City (though with considerably more focus...hell, with focus period!). The group is joined on three tracks by sampler collage artist David Shea. ".Cooper, S.
Allmusic Review
accessed , 2011 In

JazzTimes ''JazzTimes'' is an American magazine devoted to jazz. Published 10 times a year, it was founded in Washington, D.C. in 1970 by Ira Sabin as the newsletter ''Radio Free Jazz'' to complement his record store. Coverage After a decade of growth ...

Tom Terrell said "''Shrek'' is firmly in the avant garde camp. Over ten tracks, Ribot and Shrek the band cause wreck, eschewing identifiably standard song structures for a blurry continuum of multi-layered sounds, skewed rhythms and extraterrestrial transmissions. An intense exercise in wild gravity, Shrek careens madly from the pointillistic Frippertronics of 'Forth World' to the grim claustrophobia of 'Romance.' Well worth the listen-just don't look for a melody".Terrelll, T
JazzTimes Reviewaccessed November 25, 2019
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Track listing

Personnel

– guitars, banjo, Eb horn, drums, pump organ * Chris Wood – guitar on all tracks except "Prelude" and "Half Ass Whole" *David Shea – sampler on "Spigot", "Half Ass Whole" and "Human Sacrifice" *

Sebastian Steinberg Sebastian Steinberg (born February 20, 1959) is an American bass player, best known for his work in the band Soul Coughing. Biography Steinberg played with Soul Coughing throughout the band's entire history, from 1992 to 2000. In 2001, Steinberg ...

– bass on all tracks except "Prelude" and "Half Ass Whole" *

Jim Pugliese James Pugliese (born Newark, New Jersey, 1952) is an American percussionist, drummer, composer and international recording artist on over 150 CDs of experimental, jazz and rock music. His performing experience is diverse. As a freelance percussio ...

– drums on all tracks except "Prelude" and "Half Ass Whole" *Christine Bard – drums on all tracks except "Prelude", "Spigot" and "Half Ass Whole" * Marc Anthony Thompson – autoharp on "Half Ass Whole"

References

1994 albums Marc Ribot albums Avant Records albums {{1990s-album-stub