Mr. Bungle - Disco Volante

Caustic layer upon layer. Saxaphone meets blastbeat. Noisecore meets lounge. Rumba, oompah, slide, shake, swing, mosh, grind, kill. Disco Volante; secret songs, leftfield, experimental, techno, disco, rock, electronica. Sophomore, confusion, exclamation, subtlety, song within a song within a groove within a phrase within a suite. 

Mr. Bungle's second record is by far their most difficult to get into. It offers a level of inaccessibility that is surprising even for a band whose sole purpose seemed to be to experiment and push boundaries. The tracklist reveals that there are somewhere in the region of eleven or twelve songs on this record, but to me the entire thing just sounds like one trip, where, for the most part, "songs" are indistinguishable from each other as they either blur into one or are broken down into so many parts it's hard to keep track of what is what. A perfect example would be "Carry Stress In The Jaw", a loungy jazz number that collapses head-on into speeding thrash and irritating noise rock, before closing out completely for the geriatric-sounding waltzing of the innate "Secret Song" (which is also part of the same song). Yeah.

"Desert Search For Techno Allah" and "Violenza Domestica" seem to be a ten minute suite of weird noises rather than coherent songs. In the latter, Patton yells random Italian phrases over a classico Italiano composizione (and I just racially stereotyped far worse than this track itself) before the rest of the record blurs together into a mush of spazzy outbursts and meandering background noise. Just as any hope of getting into a particular groove or nuance arises, the entire thing uproots and shakes off the previous approach, delving into something new before your tiny mind can comprehend it. 

Endless, morose, insane, distant. Close. In your face. Loud, quiet, fast, slow. Intense, soft, lush, abrasive. It's like bugs crawling around inside your head it's like bugs crawling around inside your head it's like bugs crawling around inside your head it's like bugs craw}}..'[[=]////////////___

Mr. Bungle - California

What a trip! What a dream! I was busting to write about this a few months ago - on my first listen I absolutely fell in love with this smorgasbord of musical tomfoolery, but after every subsequent listen I've not been able to replicate my interest for it. That was until I realised that you have to give this album your complete attention; it works as background music but to truly appreciate what it is that's going on here you really must give it everything. Take an hour out of your day (medicinal cigarette optional) and really wrap your head around this.

Some people say that Mr. Bungle got softer with every passing album, and whilst this is true - sonically the recording is nowhere near as aurally terrifying as the self-titled or earlier demos - California possesses as much as or if not more creativity than the band did during their jazzy circus-vibe funk metal days. I feel as though I am slowly losing my mind in Vegas as "Sweet Charity" opens up this boggling musical journey. My favourite track though is "Pink Cigarette", which aches (perhaps ironically) of love lost over a strained and lounged-out big band bombast. 

Give it time. All it asks in return is your sanity.

Tom Waits - Frank's Wild Years

I've heard the name Tom Waits tossed around for absolutely yonks, but I never got around to actually hearing the guy properly until I really got into HBO's The Wire, where his song "Way Down In The Hole" was used as the theme song for every single season. The song appeared in five different guises by five different artists, one for each season, with the Waits version itself oddly appearing second on season two. Logically, that would have been first, but hey, it's not my fuckin' show haha

Since then I've looked for an in-road into Tom Waits' music, which was provided to me in the form of a recommendation of the Frank's Wild Years album. It's pretty nice stuff, material of such a type that I rarely partake in listening to, but harking back to a time that no longer exists and conjuring all sorts of fantastic imagery of culture and emotion.

It's bluesy as fark, as was a really nice break for me from a world of grindcore and hip hop (and that one Type O Negative record I keep playing over and over these days). My favourite tracks were probably the gravelier-sounding ones, like "Telephone Call From Istanbul", "Way Down In The Hole" and "Straight To The Top". The opening track, "Hang On St. Christopher" also has a wicked, wicked groove, which I'm sure I've heard somewhere else already.

You gotta keep the devil...

The Mars Volta - Deloused In The Comatorium

Welcome to another post about another album that I have put off buying for nearly a decade. You can thank the wondrous Amazon marketplace for these posts that should have rightly been made a long time ago; their CD prices are sometimes so goddamn obscene that I cannot resist buying a whole bunch of new CDs every week. This one cost me a little more than the usual 1p, but it was still a criminal sum for a brand spanking new CD. I’ve received some sorry looking CDs through the Amazon marketplace (particularly from Zoverstocks) but this one is pristine in every single way. Anyway, onto the recording itself!

Deloused In The Comatorium is an extremely ambitious debut from a band that includes those two chaps from At The Drive In and Flea from the Red Hot Chilli Peppers on bass, and a bunch of other guys that I’ve not heard of before. I don’t really know that much about RHCP or of ATDI for that matter, but considering the type of stuff that both those acts produce, you’d never in a million years expect something as mind-bogglingly experimental as this. To sum up quickly; Deloused… is a concept album based on the experiences of a dude called Cerpin Taxt, who journeys through a week-long coma induced by consuming a concoction of morphine and rat poison. Yeah.

Before I start going into particular tracks, I would just like to say that the instrumentation here is absolutely flawless; the guitar work is enough to fuck with any 6-stringed student’s head, whilst retaining that dirty, distorted “indie” sound in the loud parts, keeping everything nice and digestible. The bass, by the ever-amazing Flea, whilst playing perfectly, is kinda kept in the background for the entire album. You can hear him clearly, but the bass is the backbone here, which isn’t what you’d expect from something that seems to be so hay-wire with it’s other comprising elements. I can’t tell if there are electronics going on here or if they are just severely mangled guitar sounds. Either way, they add a whole new depth to most of the tracks. Finally, the drumming is precise, fill-happy and extremely busy (and often very Latin-sounding).

I think you’re either gonna love or hate the voice of Cedric Bixler; his high-pitched wails, whines and nasally highs are enough to get up the backs of more gruff rock’n’roll listeners, but whilst I am not particularly a massive fan of this style of vocal performance, I think that it works perfectly with the music. The first proper track “Inertiatic ESP” has an enormous chorus, and Cedric's vocals work so perfectly on the chorus.

I could go into every song here but they are so varied that this blog post will end up lasting a million years, which I do try to avoid. Whilst I do like writing in depth about records, it is time consuming on both myself and the reader; and I don’t want things to get too boring! Anyways, thanks to the copyright-defying users of Youtube.com I can let the fantastic tunes of The Mars Volta do the rest of the talking. If you’ve got an hour spare (and an open mind) I would definitely recommend giving Deloused In The Comatorium a listen through. This catch-up purchase of a band that I liked once upon a time has initiated a whole new love for me; it’s time for me to go out and discover the rest of the material that The Mars Volta has to offer. Cheerio!

Björk - Post

Where Björk's Debut record gets off to a confusing yet almost "cute" start, her follow-up record Post really starts to push the boat out. Holy mother of fuck what is going on here? One has to simply compare album covers to get an idea of the difference. Debut was different in so many ways, but seemed to have one guiding theme. Post, on the other hand, seems to have not been planned out in any way shape or form. The record opens with "Army of Me", which is fantastically heavy for a song comprised entirely from electronic instruments. "Hyperballad" follows, which is the best Björk song ever, in my opinion.

By track three however, things start getting a bit weird. All of the free-form jazz up in this bitch! And on top of that, the song is about cars. The song tells the tale of cars that have existed since the dawn of time, and have been hiding in mountains because they were scared of the noises the dinosaurs made. Okay...

And it's all downhill from there, until track seven, "Isobel", which is a world of awesome. Random snippet of info: money-grabbing sellout arseholes Carcass performed a version of this song with Björk on vocals for the single CD release of "Hyperballad" or something. She hated it, which is entirely understandable. Anyway, Post lurches onward to it's inevitable closure, and as someone who spent a large majority of ages 10 to 18 plugged into either a walkman, cassette player or mp3 player, closer "Headphones" really strikes a nerve with me. Seriously, I feel a full-blown Björk obsession coming on here. It won't be long before I paint myself up like Darth Maul and shoot myself in the fucking face.

Stebmo - Stebmo

I had the shock of my life when I saw a tweed jacket wearing Steve Moore perform as Stebmo in 2009, supporting Earth in The Croft, Bristol. What the hell was I watching? To be fair, who knew? And whilst that jazzy-jam of distorted electric piano and drums doesn't sound anything like the Stebmo record, it was entirely responsible for my purchase of it. It took me a while to get around the idea of whether I liked Stebmo or not, but in the end I threw caution to the wind and bought the album. Way to push the boat out!

Like the live show, the Stebmo record is primarily piano and organ driven, although there is a veritable smorgasbord of other instruments and performers chipping in over the whole record. One minute it's elevator music, the next an up-beat jaunt that would be the perfect soundtrack for walking through a big city, and then onto slower, more rousing and thought provoking pieces. This record has it all! I don't really know how to class this album, and I guess if it doesn't class easily then I shouldn't try to, although Discogs has it listed as Avant-garde jazz. Hmm. Out on Invada Records (the Bristol-based one) and as far as I can tell, all the copies are clear vinyl. Also, since this cunt stole my fucking Cattle Decapitation 7" in a bogus trade, the Stebmo record is now by far the clearest clear record I own. That shit is like fucking glass. Check it out below the video link!

 

This (incorrectly titled) video mashes up two tracks off the record; the upbeat and cheesy "Blind Ross" comes first, followed by the much more somber and brooding "Dark Circles". I picked this vid because it shows two different sides to this fantastic record in one link. 

Safehouse - Press to Ascend

This EP has a mega-random story behind it. When I was around 13/14, our gang would always chill / play fuck in this one street in upper-Abercanaid. The wannabe-middle class fucks up there hated us, but we had a few friends who lived there so we always hung around there. Not everyone there was bad, but there was the usual crowd of grouchy middle-aged meatbags who despised children. Not to mention, we did play fuck quite a bit, but that's another story for another time, possibly whilst in a local pub surrounded by old friends and with a belly bursting with beer. I digress. One day this car is pulled up outside one of the houses and a gang of older boys are hanging around it. The boot is open and they are all talking excitedly. I guess one of the lads had parents that lived here. Anyways, after a while one of the dudes walks over with about 10 CDs and asks us all "do you like music?". A few of us answer "yes" in unison and we get given copies of this CD, whom I assume is the band of the boys with the car.

Extremely riveting story aside, the CD turned out to be Press to Ascend, a demo/EP by local jazz-influenced pub rock band, Safehouse. They were quite active around Merthyr for a while but I was too young to really understand or want to be involved in ever going to see them live. It was all a bit before my time. Anyway, time to round this off. Press to Ascend isn't particularly a CD I ever listen to but it is something I will always keep in my collection, mainly for the memories. Also I think it was the first time I was given something as cool as a CD for free by actual musicians. Holy shit! This was self released in 2003. RIP Safehouse!

PS this band is not to be confused with the currently active South Wales covers band Safe House. 

Dead Neanderthals - Dead Neanderthals

There is no other band in the world that sounds like Dead Neanderthals (although 7000 Dying Rats and Rich Hoak's solo experiments do come close in their own little ways). Jazzgrind? Or is it saxgrind? Who the fuck would have thought it? Not me, that's for sure! Trust the Netherlands! Ha ha.

This is one of the original Bat Shit Records pressings of the 7" EP, limited to 105 copies (I have number 92). It is a simple affair of a printed and stamped card sleeve, folded to house a plain black 7". You have to look at the disc etching to figure out what side your playing! This is a basic, and excellently D.I.Y as fuck collectors item that I am proud to own. This is well out of print, as is, I believe, the repress, but you can still download it for free from Grindcore Karaoke.

On the ears, Dead Neanderthals first come across as extremely lo-fi and abrasive, but once your ears adjust you can truly appreciate the gorgeous racket that is going on here. Once you are over the absence of guitars  and vocals (just a saxophone and a drum kit here) you can properly begin to enjoy the tunes on offer. I imagine that Dead Neanderthals sound a hundred times better in a volatile live environment, and I was absolutely crushed to realize that I recently missed their brief UK tour. Totally gutted is an understatement!

These guys have a full 10" out now being distributed by Burning World records, which is a big deal, and I'm glad to see them getting some well deserved attention. I really think that Jay Randall's enormously successful Grindcore Karaoke label has a huge part to play in the international success of many bands, including Dead Neanderthals. I for one, to be sure, had never heard of these guys until I downloaded their record off that site. Excellent stuff all round!