Thirty-three

Fantômas – Suspended Animation (Ipecac)

Mike Patton’s supergroup returns, with their fourth album since 1999. After the seventy-four minute single track ambient experiment that was Delirium Cordia (2004), the band released the polar opposite – a thirty track ‘calendar’ based on the days in April full of ostensibly kids’ music. What’s more, it was apparently created at the same time as the ambient piece.

From ‘background music’ couldn’t come a more opposite concoction of completely complex composition. Influenced by the scattershot sound of the band’s debut, this offers forth numerous short, dynamic, aggressive pieces based on jazz, Death Metal and cartoons (including sound effects and Bugs Bunny samples).

What seems on the surface to be random noises and riffs has actually been meticulously crafted by Patton himself, then given to the musicians to play as only they know how (Dave Lombardo’s drumming is notable in its quality).

Filled with ideas and brilliance, there are two main issues, one haunting this album and the other, most Patton projects. Due to the intensity and density of this music, it can be a bit much by the end of the album. Fortunately this is somewhat offset by the fact the album is just over half an hour.

Which leads us to the more universal issue I have with the musical output of the great man. While there are myriad great ideas, they very rarely have a chance to flower before they are trampled by more of the same. It would be nice to have a Patton album which let its ideas develop, rather than being discarded like so many kid’s toys.

Wait a minute…

Thirty-four


Lydia Lunch – Smoke in the Shadows (Atavistic)

A very individual album, from the ever-individual and divine Ms. Lunch, this continues her love for the noir-esque sound. In fact, considering the almost ‘Sin City’ aesthetic, this would be very much a capturing of the zeitgeist in mid 2005.

Sexy as ever, she purrs threats and narrative over sultry piano and the occasional stab of blazing brass, and it never gets old. Much like peers Jim Thirlwell or Michael Gira, Lydia has her identity down pat and works it perfectly.

Songs like ‘Trick Baby’ push the credibility a tad, but they are at the very least fun digressions from the sleazy main course. Final song ‘Hot Tip’ restores the mood to close, and Smoke in the Shadows is yet another satisfying serving of Lunch.

Thirty-five


Cage – Hell’s Winter (Def Jux)

This is something of a signature Def Jux album. There are apparently numerous producers featuring on this HipHop album, but it has a very traditional (if that term can be used for such bruising, claustrophobia-inducing, low-bitrate texturing) El-P sound to it. I have been informed that DJ Shadow produced a track, but smooth, poignant Endtroducing… this is not.

This is, however, a very political album. Cage rails against the machine of the government, as well as dissing ‘deadbeat dads’. Jello Biafra guests on ‘Grand Ol’ Party Crash’ with what should be an amusing impersonation of George W. Bush, but which actually turns out to be slightly embarrassing. There is something of the drunk uncle at a wedding in the usually killer Biafra’s attempt at making like Rory Bremner. As if one wasn’t enough.

This works as a whole, though. Like the CYNE album, this is good but in no way a classic, and as such finds much company from 2005. This is definitely not the second coming of Cannibal Ox, but passes the time well and has a great, brutal HipHop sound to it. Again, though, the ugly question raises its head: does time, and development, just stop after 2001? I blame September the 11th.

Thirty-six


Amon Tobin – Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory (Ninja Tune)

I love Amon Tobin. He’s cool, his album art is always excellent, and he releases consistently brilliant albums. It’s fair to say he’s one of my favourite musicians around at the moment.

His last album ‘proper’ (though this does technically count) was 2002’s Out From Out Where, an album which took his trademark dark instrumental HipHop into realms of complexity putting him more on a par with a band like Fantômas than DJ Shadow.

Since then he’s released a collection of remixes and this, a soundtrack to the then-most recent in the Splinter Cell gaming franchise. As a result, some of the tracks are more mood-based than actual song, but as a whole it works.

As the emphasis has to be on what the gamer is doing at any one time, Tobin has reeled back the complexity for this album, focusing more on the atmospherics and solid rhythms. So ‘Kokubo Sosho Battle’ actually sounds like a tense boss fight. But I don’t know, as I haven’t played that game to find out.

It would be interesting to see how well the music lives in an interactive environment, where what plays is dependent on your actions, but as a linear listening experience, this is excellent percussive electronica which stands tall on its own merit.