A Kind O' Music!: Mr. Bungle - Disco Volante (1995)

Mr. Bungle - Disco Volante (1995)
EAC (Img.Ape+LOG+Cue) | Total Time: 68:45 min | 350 Mb
Genre: Alternative Metal / Funk Metal / Avant-garde | Label: Warner Bros | Catalog#: 9 26640-2

“

Disco Volante is, simply put, one of the best albums of the 90s. A friend of mine from college, who was much more into the "hard rock" scene than I was, came to visit me sometime in the mid-90s and played a tape of this album while we were driving somewhere, knowing that it would be right up my alley. It wasn't long before I had my own copy on CD.
Fortunately, when he "previewed" the album to me, he skipped the first track - a moronic heavy metal song about high school friends dying off. If that was the first track that I had heard, this review probably wouldn't exist. Fortunately, the rest of the album is nothing like that.
I have to take exception to Nick's statement that there are no catchy tunes or danceable rhythms. "Chemical Marriage", the back half of "Carry Stress in the Jaw", "Desert Search For Techno Allah" and "Ma Meeshka Mow Skwoz" are all very catchy, as are other parts of the album. Overall the music is a strange blend of speed metal, jazz, electronica, goofy and usually incomprehensible vocals, klezmer, hockey rink organ and a ton of other elements. The blend works much better than one would imagine, creating something entirely new, energetic and enticing. You'll rarely see Mr. Bungle compared to other bands, but it seems like every new "hard-rock avant" band that comes along is described as Mr. Bungle mixed with some other band.

If prog fans need something to identify with, there's a lengthy, multi-part track called "The Bends" that attempts to musically depict someone falling out of a boat, having various underwater adventures and then returning to the surface with the bends (headphone listeners may want to turn down that ending). The band also has a sense of humor - be sure to read the lyrics to "Platypus" in the liner notes. And an occasional tendency to be disturbing - the lyrics to "After School Special" seem like another goof at first, but it's actually about an abused child.

Disco Volante is definitely better than the band's self-titled first album, which spends too much time trying to be offensive or bizarre and only has a couple decent tracks. Personally, I also like it better than their third release California, which replaces a lot of the avantness of Disco with a mutant blend of metal and Beach Boys. If you're at all into the heavier and more experimental ends of prog, you need Disco Volante.

”

Musicians:
Trevor Dunn, bass; Mike Patton, organ, ocarina, vocals, microcassette; William Winant, percussion, bongos, cymbals, glockenspiel, jew's-harp, tabla, xylophone, kanjira, sistrum; Graham Connah, piano; Theobald Brooks Lengyel, reeds; Clinton McKinnon, clarinet, drums, keyboards, tenor sax; I Quit, percussion, wood block; Lisandro Adrover, bandoneon

Tracklist:
1. Everyone I Went to High School With Is Dead — 2:45
2. Chemical Marriage — 3:09
3. Carry Stress in the Jaw — 8:59
4. Desert Search for Techno Allah — 5:24
5. Violenza Domestica — 5:14
6. After School Special — 2:47
7. Phlegmatics — 3:16
8. Ma Meeshka Mow Skwoz — 6:06
9. The Bends — 10:28
10. Backstrokin' — 2:27
11. Platypus — 5:07
12. Merry Go Bye Bye/Nothing — 12:58

EAC LOG

PASSWORD:
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Mr. Bungle - Disco Volante (1995)

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