bondagewound's Full Review: Disco Volante by Mr. Bungle
Mr. Bungle is a collection of musical misfits featuring Mike Patton (formerly lead singer of Faith No More), Trey Spruance, Trevor Dunn, Bar McKinnon, and Danny Heifetz. The list of musicians on this records reads as follows:
I QUIT: A woodblock
Trevor Dunn: Bass, vile
Uncooked meat prior to state vector collapse: P'ip'a, keyboards/organs, guitar, electronics
Clinton McKinnon: Tenor sax, clarinets, keyboards on (6), drums on (5)
Patton: Vocals, microcassette, organs on (9)&(10), ocarina on (3)
Theo: Eb reeds piped in from Ithaca
It seams that all of these instruments appear on every track, and are not always used to enhance a song's musicality. Most of the songs are extended noise collages and retain very little true structure. I love it. This band sounds like they're having so much fun. For the most part, the record sounds as if all of the members just found them selves humming the same tune, and decided to make a record out of it, occasionally adding droplets of sonic terror.
It would be impossible to pin this record down to a single style since it takes it's greatest pleasure in letting you grow mildly accustomed to one sound and then changing it. Take for instance, the very first song, Everyone I Went To High School With Is Dead, a morbid meditation on graduation as a concept of death. The whole song is a chorus of distorted voices and instruments. The bass and guitar accompany drums with distorted percussion and feedback. Thousands of cavemen accompany Patton while he shrieks like a man with a mongoose attached to his face. "My yearbook keeps me informed/My yearbook keeps me in line/It's an obituary/Gives me a concept of time." These are the only lyrics in the song that the listener can actually make out. Once one discovers the lyrics in the liner notes, they are quite serious. It is quite representative of Mr. Bungle to sing about serious topics in a way that seams to belittle them.
This is not to say there is nothing with a beat on here. Desert Search For Techno Allah drives along with pulsing disco drums and a mid-east sound courtesy of guitarist Spruance(for more on his fascination with the music of that region, check out his side project Secret Chiefs 3). Phlegmatics starts off with heavy drums that scream punk, treats them with atonal organ and guitar, and then stops abruptly to drift in it's own improvised melodicism. Ma Meeshka Mow Skwoz slithers like the soundtrack to Beetlegeuse and features Mike Patton speaking his own language and playing with the screaching of a tape cassette on fast forward.
There are real songs as well. My favorite is Carry Stress in the Jaw, which features an insanely complicated head and very pretty singing. It immediately becomes accustomed to itself as mystical jazz before Patton squeals and the whole thing turns into death metal, a la Faxed Head (who probably got most of their inspiration from this song, seeing as how they are basically Mr. Bungle; but I digress). This may be the only time you will ever hear a death metal tune with a sax solo. Then the track splits like stock and becomes a rockabilly tune about an old man with a voice like Abe Simpson, who complains that he didn't get to play on the album. The tune ends with somebody playing the bongos and doing vocal contortions.
Another gem is After School Special, about a child sarcastically talking about how great his mom is. When it's revealed at the end how much he hates her ("You lied to me!") Patton really does a convincing job sounding like a petulant child who carries endless frustration. The song is so eerie that it gives even this jaded listener pause. And then it too splits; it splits into the most disturbing thing ever caught on tape: the hideous sound of a distorted infant’s voice as it laughs and giggles, and then in a chillingly evil voice asks, "Why are you touching me?"
Merry Go Bye Bye may be the best song on the record. It bounces along in a Beach Boys-like way before exploding into a viscous metal track, descending into chaos, and emerging as a transcendent voyage up to heaven. This is song is vaguely reminiscent of Mr. Bungle’s work on California; it features the most conventional song structure on the record. The fact of the matter is that even when they are trashing something, Mr. Bungle’s love of pop music shines through. Patton’s swaggering vocals and genuinely wonderful lyrics prove that he is an artist and not just another guy with a musical monkey wrench.
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.