Fantomas - The Director's Cut
Ipecac/Shock Records - 2001
By Mark Bridgeman
Take the musical inventiveness of Faith No More, cut it with the twistedly creative (creatively twisted?) Mr Bungle, smother it with Mike Patton's irrepressible persona, and you have Fantomas. This disc is beyond a trip.
There are 15 'takes' on this collection of Fantomas'd movie themes, starting with The Godfather, and going through scores for famous, and infamous, films of years gone by: Rosemary's Baby, Spider Baby, Vendetta, Cape Fear, and Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer to name just some of them. This isn't music to dance by. Rather, it's music to sit and listen to, and try not to let it carry you away TOO far.
Patton is joined by ex-Slayer stickman Dave Lombardo, former Bunglemate Trevor Dunn (who also has a jazz background, evident on some tracks) on bass, and Buzz 'El Hombre' Osborne (Melvins) on guitar. Quite a mix, and the music is not what you would perhaps expect from this team; it really is a serious, albeit surreal, take on movie themes. It captures the atmosphere of One Step Beyond and Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me alike, a mood that can at times send shivers up your spine.
Patton is his usual self: screaming at one point, pouring sweet honey into your ears the next. Lombardo will surprise you if all you know him from is his Slayer work. Although he does let loose when the mood requires it, he also takes a back seat quite often, tapping quietly along in the background. Osborne's guitars rip it up when need be, and otherwise give it a cool sonic edge. This is extreme music on both ends of the scale.
If you're a fan of Patton's more eclectic FNM work, then you should enjoy this. I personally loved it, more for the work taken in arranging these scores into a hard edged musical form, and for the performances all round.
It's music for the sake of music, and that's always a good thing.
Ipecac/Shock Records - 2001
By Mark Bridgeman
Take the musical inventiveness of Faith No More, cut it with the twistedly creative (creatively twisted?) Mr Bungle, smother it with Mike Patton's irrepressible persona, and you have Fantomas. This disc is beyond a trip.
There are 15 'takes' on this collection of Fantomas'd movie themes, starting with The Godfather, and going through scores for famous, and infamous, films of years gone by: Rosemary's Baby, Spider Baby, Vendetta, Cape Fear, and Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer to name just some of them. This isn't music to dance by. Rather, it's music to sit and listen to, and try not to let it carry you away TOO far.
Patton is joined by ex-Slayer stickman Dave Lombardo, former Bunglemate Trevor Dunn (who also has a jazz background, evident on some tracks) on bass, and Buzz 'El Hombre' Osborne (Melvins) on guitar. Quite a mix, and the music is not what you would perhaps expect from this team; it really is a serious, albeit surreal, take on movie themes. It captures the atmosphere of One Step Beyond and Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me alike, a mood that can at times send shivers up your spine.
Patton is his usual self: screaming at one point, pouring sweet honey into your ears the next. Lombardo will surprise you if all you know him from is his Slayer work. Although he does let loose when the mood requires it, he also takes a back seat quite often, tapping quietly along in the background. Osborne's guitars rip it up when need be, and otherwise give it a cool sonic edge. This is extreme music on both ends of the scale.
If you're a fan of Patton's more eclectic FNM work, then you should enjoy this. I personally loved it, more for the work taken in arranging these scores into a hard edged musical form, and for the performances all round.
It's music for the sake of music, and that's always a good thing.
