Mr. Bungle - Mr Bungle
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Free Music Notes for Mr Bungle
Free Music Review: Love a good challenge? - stay. Easily offended? - leave now!
Hit: 5 Stars
And that's not much of an exaggeration. Mr. Bungle's music is a manic, relentless, ultra-iconoclastic and hyper-amalgamated assault on the senses - musically and lyrically. The graphic, absurd and explicit lyrical content combined with the hyperactive genre-switching hits the listener like a few machine guns firing off many rounds all at once - confusing and eventually turning the mind into some kind of sewage disposal - not literally, but pretty close. Jazz, metal (thrash and death), pseudo-balladry, ska, punk, funk, disco, video game music and several other styles can be found -- all within a single track. This is pretty much how the entire album plays out.
Ironic? Mapped-out? Probably a combination of the two, but, it seems to me that the concept was for these guys to break as many rules as possible (e.g. combine the most horrendous lyrical content with the most horrendous musical elements.) Mr. Bungle takes typical musical clichés and throws them ALL out the window and runs them over with a truck. Conversely (and simultaneously), they take these clichés then hurl them right smack in the listeners face - only MUCH bigger, rawer and uglier. All of this is what makes me consider this some kind of genius.
If you want to be challenged, or want something a little different, take the plunge. Be careful though, after listening to this, you may find most of the music you're normally accustomed to passé...
Free Music Review: "A Carnival For The Human Race"
Hit: 5 Stars
My first thought when I heard this album was, "This should be the theme music for 'Killer Klowns From Outer Space'"! This is a three-ring circus through a glass darkly. A hurdy-gurdy machine hopped up on goofballs. It is the global psychosis compressed to seventy-three minutes of melodic wonder, complete with nausea, dementia, and verbal threats from David Lynch characters.Mr. Bungle is Faith No More's lead singer, Mike Patton, and his original band from Eureka, CA. The eminent John Zorn produced this, the band's debut album (he plays horn on it, too). And the quality of musicianship is far beyond anything you would expect to hear on a 'rock' album. What would one call it? Fusion rock? Post-rock? Maybe. This album, simply put, is a mindf***.
Mr. Bungle seems to regard any sound as inclusory for recording: the panting of a dog, the moans of a porn actress, sound effects from the pinball machine 'Funhouse', the chorus from 'Grease', and a certain refrain from 'The Wizard of Oz'.
All of this of course says nothing of the music itself, which is extraordinary. You could lock yourself in a room and listen, by turns, to just the bass, just the horns, just the keys, or just the voices, and you would have a unique experience every time. You ever hear a polka at 120 beats per minute? Nope? You ever hear a showtune about blue movies? Not that you can recall? Well it's been done before, and it's all right here.
Free Music Review: Funny, rude, embarrasing, and extremly creative
Hit: 5 Stars
I bought Mr. Bungle's self titled album about a year ago due to hearing various recommendations of it. I remember that day clearly, I popped the cd into my cars stereo and was very freightened at what I heard. I almost threw the thing out several times but I decided to give the album another chance, this time listening to it from start to finish like I was supposed to. Quote Unquote was finished and I still didn't know what the hell was going on but I continued and around the end of Dead Goon I got the album, and since that moment I listen to this disc at least once every couple days. Heavily layered with the funk that their successor albums failed to have. It also has plenty of questionable lyrics especialy The Girls of Porn. Mike Patton uses his voice really well too, he has the single best range I've ever heard, from Death metal grows to sweet melody to just plain noise. Musically it could be hardcore thrash metal one moment then without any warning it will go all loungey then into some circus music which transformes into video game music for no reason what so ever. This album is definatly not for those of you who listen to once genre of music exclusivly, for you hate this album like no other if you do.
Overall I wouldn't say this is Mr. Bungle's best release, as California just narrowly out does it, but it's a very good starting point for those who seriously want to get into the magic of Bungle.
Free Music Review: What is this album?
Hit: 5 Stars
Yes, it is the kind of album that really grows on you. It's the first and best of its kind they say, but what is its kind? Let's just call it avant garde. John Zorn, producer, actually was doing stuff along these lines at the same time, take songs like Bonecrusher from "Music for Children." But the difference with this Mr. Bungle album is that most of these "songs" have been accruing for 6 or 8 years as they produce demos, etc. The difference in musical composition and tightness is apparent on Disco Volante when newer material was introduced (especially Trevor's contributions), except for Platypus which was an old one.
So anyway, on this selftitled debut, Trey's guitar parts are often incredible, Trevor's Bass kills me, the horns couldn't be better, keyboards are 80s but add flavor, Patton's voice is the only thing to top Nick Blinko in demented virtuosity, but the amassment of samples is what astounds me most. Nobody outside of hip hop did anything like this back in 1991. Now granted Girls of Porn and Carousel were collecting samples for 6 years, but still we can't forget the texture, humor, and excess variety that these groundbreaking gems provide.
"Music can be like THIS!" The only other times I've gotten that is with Aphex Twin and Self. Anyway, great album - buy it - love it - but it certainly is not for everyone. Certainly.
Free Music Review: Very misunderstood.....
Hit: 5 Stars
This CD is the work of some very careful, methodical geniuses, and very few people recognize it. People are always quick to latch on to the silly dirty aspects of it (...)but forget to credit the ...for being one of the lowest down funkiest dico grooves ever. Bungle is amazing in that they play every one of their genres in an exageratedly "correct" manner. I think they were just trying to mess with convention in any way they could. The CD starts with 30 seconds of silence. Dead silence, like, nothing at all. And then it doesn't stop for the next 74 minutes. They juxtopose trains with honking saxaphones, quiet torch songs with ska, metal with polka while Mike Patton seemingly looses his mind several times per minute. Its all so dense and so quick and flexible that it doesn't seem real. Or maybe it does but its the product of one deranged mind playing all the instruments at once. But more likely it was 6 people sitting at a recording console scrutinizing over the placement of each honk, screech, sample and riff. The musicianship is second to none, the songwriting is convoluted and brilliant. The only critisism I can think of is that they are a little overly academic, but its hard to even think that while listening to Patton ... while Col. Sanders is screwing up a KFC commercial and some guy from a .... Ya know?