The band that arguably took up the gauntlet of creating rapidly eclectic genre-clashing pieces after Naked City's conclusion was Praxis. Praxis was a vehicle for composer Bill Laswell (a frequent Zorn collaborator) to throw incredibly disparate styles and artists together in an improvisory setting and check out the results. Where Naked City's contrasts were carefully composed and planned, Praxis' sound was entirely up-in-the-air and improvised. While Praxis featured several musicians that became regular "members" of the group, including Laswell himself, Buckethead, Bernie Worrell, Bryan "Brain" Mantia and Bootsy Collins, other collaborators included such diverse artists as AF Next Man Flip, Cindy Blackman, DJ Disk, DXT, Yamatsuka Eye, Monkey & Large, Future Prophecies, Mick Harris, Lili Haydn, PhonosycographDISK, Invisibl Skratch Piklz, Toshinori Kondo, Pat Thrall, Maximum Bob, Rawthang, Tatsuya Yoshida, Mike Patton, Iggy Pop, Serj Tankian, Pat Thrall, Alex Haas, Peter Wetherbee, Rammellzee, Hawkman, Killah Priest, Blind Idiot God and John Zorn. That's a huge, and incredibly eclectic, list of artists. Their debut, Transmutation (Mutatis Mutandis) demonstrates their diversity beautifully. Funk, jazz, metal, hip-hop, ambient, blues, avant-garde textures and a thousand other genres are spliced together as the group runs through style after style, their improvisations often yielding awe-inspiring results. They covered heavier textures (similar to Naked City) on Sacrifist, rock improv on Metatron, Laswell's ambient and electronica on Mold, and a variety of different styles of song-writing on the vocal-heavy Profanation: Preparation For A Coming Darkness. Their live performances, which were just as improvisational, offered an unpredictable and often transcendent experience. Naked City and Praxis are the ideal bands for listeners with hyperactive minds and short attention spans. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VF9UMona74w
