The conundrum of the Cagean aesthetic goes like this: while music is to be seen as no more than "organized sound," there is a beauty to be found in unorganized sound. Cage's random compositions were random in a sense (sections determined by coin toss, for example), but never spontaneous; the composer famously hated jazz and the very notion of improvisation. And presumably, just as Pollock tossed out 90 percent of his paint-splattered canvasses, at least some of Cage's randomized compositions were discarded as unsatisfactory. And yet he championed the sounds of city streets as music, or at least as something he had used to replace music. New York City traffic sounds, however, could surely be nothing but chaotic sound.

In the sixth installment of Eugene Chadbourne's Horror series, he reaches again into his noisy soul for a selection of home recordings and prepared guitar improvisations. It's an open question what John Cage would think of the disc. Frankenstein on Ice alternates between more of Chadbourne's rattly, slippery guitar playing and tapes of seemingly unaltered "found sound." The guitar tracks (some on a handmade lap steel) continue in the Ayleresque vein Chadbourne's explored of late, something like Loren MazzaCane Connors' early acoustic recordings. This has been a successful area of exploration for the good doctor, and the only thing that makes it less than noteworthy here is that a fair bit of his pleasingly impenetrable improvisations have already been released elsewhere.

The musique concr�te segments are what should distinguish this disc, and perhaps would lend some context to the title. Chad's home recordings, often featuring his daughters, have added much to previous records (especially his found-sound opus Jungle Cookies), but here they evoke nothing. The daughters might be getting too old for tape recorder games that lack self-awareness, and the sound of rain and windshield wipers raises the same question as Cage's traffic jam: it might be interesting, but why do I need you to point me there?

If you have more emotional fortitude than this scribe, you might be able to handle owning only some of the Horror recordings (and some of them are certainly worth owning). In this case, even with a gap in the series, you'd be better off for it.