Personnel: John Zorn (saxophone); Arto Lindsay (vocals, electric guitar); Marc Ribot, Bill Frisell (electric guitar, banjo); Robert Quine (electric guitar); Carlos Emmanuel (harp); Jill Jaffe (violin, viola); Maxine Neuman (cello); Peter Scherer (keyboards); Kermit Driscoll, Dave Hofstra (bass instrument); Bobby Previte (drums, percussion); Ikue Mori (drum machine); Cyro Baptista (percussion); Christian Marclay (turntables).

Cynical Hysterie Hour is John Zorn's music for four animated shorts by Japanese cartoonist Kiriko Kubo. Bursts of TV rock, synth whistles and barks, banjo licks, and sound effects intensify the caffeinated jumping through genre hoops of this slick and cinematically silly music. Clocking in at 25 minutes, this CD's value lies in the fact that it is Zorn's first venture into cartoon music, which he has long revered, and that it was in print on Sony for merely months in 1990 before being yanked out of print, making it the most sought-after rarity of Zorn's recordings. In late 1996, Zorn finally attained the rights for his music, and remastered and re-released the album on his own label, Tzadik. ~ Joslyn Layne