New Fantomas album: utterly useless

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I was supposed to review this new Fantomas record, but I wound up phoning my editor and begging out of it. I didn't even want to slam it. It sounds like a kitten getting run over by a vacuum cleaner.
I've finally come to the realization that I have absolutely no use for anything that Mike Patton does anymore.

― Mr Deeds (Mr Deeds), Saturday, 23 April 2005 04:56 (twenty years ago)

It sounds like a kitten getting run over by a vacuum cleaner.

And you were expecting what?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 23 April 2005 05:15 (twenty years ago)

This is all I have heard of this album (that it sucks)What by Patton would you suggest listening to? I see his name kicked around semi-frequently.

― jmeister (jmeister), Saturday, 23 April 2005 05:16 (twenty years ago)

I dunno what I was expecting, Alex. But wow. This is awful.

― Mr Deeds (Mr Deeds), Saturday, 23 April 2005 05:17 (twenty years ago)

Sorry to hear it. I was quite interested in hearing it, based on the concept (re-interpretted cartoon music?)

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 23 April 2005 05:18 (twenty years ago)

Well, maybe you'll find something to like about it. I actually enjoyed Mr. Bungle back in the day, but this Fantomas stuff is just too far over the top for me, I guess.

― Mr Deeds (Mr Deeds), Saturday, 23 April 2005 05:32 (twenty years ago)

"Kitten getting run over by a vacuum cleaner" sounds promising.

― Failin Huxley (noodle vague), Saturday, 23 April 2005 05:37 (twenty years ago)

Okay, I just listened to some Amazon samples, it sounds pretty good, Naked City-esque.

― Failin Huxley (noodle vague), Saturday, 23 April 2005 06:12 (twenty years ago)

Bugs Bunny's on it. That's gotta be worth something.

― Mike Dixn (Mike Dixon), Saturday, 23 April 2005 14:45 (twenty years ago)

It's not completely useless, could make a good compact mirror, or a coaster..... or something......

― JTS, Saturday, 23 April 2005 16:51 (twenty years ago)

It's honestly not particularly extreme or difficult. Sheesh.

― Failin Huxley (noodle vague), Saturday, 23 April 2005 16:53 (twenty years ago)

"The Director's Cut" album is really great. Aside from that, I have not heard "Delirium Corda", but I have heard the Fantomas remix of Bjork's "Where Is the Line" on a BBC site and it's pretty amazing. Just sayin' . . .

I would also vouch for "Adult Themes for Voice"- it's Hanatarash style constant screaming cut-up freakout noise and it's great.

― Drew Daniel (Drew Daniel), Saturday, 23 April 2005 16:54 (twenty years ago)

I was listening to this (Suspended Animation) at the listening booth in Virgin yesterday and was favorably impressed to the point that I actually bought it. I'm never been a huge Mike Patton fan, although I've enjoyed some of the things he's done with Zorn. But, yeah, it's very Naked City-esque, but done well.

― o. nate (onate), Saturday, 23 April 2005 16:54 (twenty years ago)

this is everywhere in montreal for some reason. is it getting heavily pushed in other cities too? like displays in hmv and everything

― s1ocki (slutsky), Saturday, 23 April 2005 16:54 (twenty years ago)

It was all over the Virgin store. I don't know why. It doesn't seem like the kind of thing that would sell as well the other featured albums. But the Virgin store does tend to push more adventurous music sometimes - the new M.I.A. album was also all over the store displays.

The CD also comes with a calendar of April 2005, with cool cartoon pop-art for each day by a Japanese artist whose name escapes me.

― o. nate (onate), Saturday, 23 April 2005 16:57 (twenty years ago)

Though I guess there's only seven more days left to use it (the calendar), so act fast.

― o. nate (onate), Saturday, 23 April 2005 16:58 (twenty years ago)

I think it's a terrific album. It's particular applicability to listening moods in your life might be slim but when you get that itch for mathy death metal infused with children's toy instruments, cartoon sounds effects, and childrens' choirs god damn it this album scratches till you're satisfied.

To call it useless is all fine and well but you have to admit that a) there's very little music like this, it's extremely unique, and I think you have to applaud artists who maintain a thread of orginality throughout their career (even if it's not your type of music) and b) you have no idea how difficult this music is to pull off. The large amount of hard work put into this is evident to my ears. At the same time they make it sound easy. They do it on the record and they do it exactly the same live. It's a mind blower.

― Ziggy Warchest, Saturday, 23 April 2005 17:16 (twenty years ago)

I think the album's fucking great. (If you have this month's Wire, you probably already know that.) It's a little hard to take, but it's some of the cleanest thrash I've ever heard, stopping and shifting on a dime, the cartoon sound-effects and samples are extremely well integrated into the pieces, and well, yeah. I really really like it. And having just seen them live on the 12th, I gotta say I'm even more impressed.

I'm not the world's biggest Patton fan. I hated Mr. Bungle. But Fantomas really has become one of my favorite bands, period. And this record is terrific.

― pdf (Phil Freeman), Saturday, 23 April 2005 17:54 (twenty years ago)

I thought it was fan-fucking-tastic, personally. Pulled me back from the "maybe I don't need any more Patton stuff" abyss that delerium hung my feet over. Gradually surpassing Director's Cut as my favorite Fantomas album...

― John Justen (johnjusten), Saturday, 23 April 2005 21:36 (twenty years ago)

so basically what I should make of this thread is that it *doesn't* sound like an unholy union of a cat and a vacuum cleaner? Here I was thinking Fantomas had gone down Masonna's path or something.

― doug (doug), Monday, 25 April 2005 09:49 (twenty years ago)

No, it does sound like a kitty cat being eaten into a vacuum cleaner. And then later it sounds like the souls of preschoolers being chopped into a million tiny, meaty pieces, and their souls ascending to heaven, in a conga line fashion.

This album is extraordinary, unrelenting, hilarious, frightening, and pretty obviously something that not everyone will enjoy. It's my favorite album of '05 so far.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Monday, 25 April 2005 13:05 (twenty years ago)

It's awesome.

― ddb (ddb), Monday, 25 April 2005 13:49 (twenty years ago)

i like it

― Aerodynamic (Aerodynamic), Monday, 25 April 2005 22:05 (twenty years ago)

I love it lots. You can still listen to it in its entirety here for a little while longer. Click the "Luisterpaal" link then click "Omlaag" ("scroll down," apparently) until you get to it. I'm actually going to pay money for a copy, and I don't do much of that anymore.

― Curious George (1/6 Scale Model) (Rock Hardy), Monday, 25 April 2005 23:56 (twenty years ago)

yeah i'm in the utterly speechless camp myself. i imagined it being fun after reading the write up in the wire, but this is baffling and awesome.

― blackmail.is.my.life (blackmail.is.my.life), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 00:01 (twenty years ago)

i give this album a 9 out of 10.

― charleston charge (chaki), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 08:36 (twenty years ago)

This thread was brought to you by Statler and Waldorf. We thank you.

― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 09:09 (twenty years ago)

This shit is crazy, in a good way. Very Zornish. Do they really do this live? How the fuck do they remember all of these tiny little bits of music?

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 12:27 (twenty years ago)

"thought this was the title" joke

― A Viking of Some Note (Andrew Thames), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 12:30 (twenty years ago)

Did they record one track a day as the titles suggest?

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 12:39 (twenty years ago)

No, but when I interviewed Patton he suggested listening to one track a day, as though it was an Advent calendar.

― pdf (Phil Freeman), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 12:40 (twenty years ago)

I listened to it in the car on the way home yesterday. Again, very nice. There are obvious parallels to Naked City's thrash-jazz, but lots of differences too. The sonic palette is different - gothier, maybe - with metal and cartoon music being the most prominent modes. It sort of sounds like the perfect soundtrack to a particularly violent episode of Itchy & Scratchy.

― o. nate (onate), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 13:45 (twenty years ago)

OMG. I looked at the Ipecac site, and when Dave Lombardo is going to be on tour with Slayer, his Fantomas sub will be TERRY BOZZIO.

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 13:50 (twenty years ago)

anyone heard the Mike Patton + X-ecutioners album ?

worthy or not ..

i aint a fan of this john zorn style freakiness - so im wary ..

― mark e (mark e), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 13:51 (twenty years ago)

OMG. I looked at the Ipecac site, and when Dave Lombardo is going to be on tour with Slayer, his Fantomas sub will be TERRY BOZZIO.

HOLY FUCK!

The more I listen to Suspended Animation, the more the balance of shadowy/goth sounds and ridiculous/cartoon sounds begins to sound like a really wicked, focused microcosm of all human existence.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 14:34 (twenty years ago)

I like the X-ecutioners album, but it's pretty out there most of the time...listen before you buy, I guess. It's not the same kind of noisy as the zornish stuff, but it's definitely music built for the spastic short attention span for the most part. Not going to convert anyone to a Patton fan... I know some X-ecutioners obsessives that are pretty annoyed that it exists at all.

And yes, in the past, the live show has been pretty spot on. If they could pull it off on the tour for the first album, they'll probably do it for this one as well. Especially with Bozzio's 400 piece drum kit. That thing scares me.

― John Justen (johnjusten), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 14:44 (twenty years ago)

>New Fantomas album: utterly useless<

And (to quote Alex in NYC) you were expecting what?

― xhuxk, Tuesday, 26 April 2005 14:52 (twenty years ago)

The more I listen to Suspended Animation, the more the balance of shadowy/goth sounds and ridiculous/cartoon sounds begins to sound like a really wicked, focused microcosm of all human existence

I got this feeling too, strangely enough. I was thinking, this music is like some kind of commentary on the human condition - and the commentary is not pretty.

― o. nate (onate), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 16:36 (twenty years ago)

I think that feeling is one of the major differences between this work and Naked City. Naked City's thrash-jazz feels more formalist - it's wonderful in its way but it doesn't reflect anything outside of itself - whereas the Fantomas feels more allegorical.

― o. nate (onate), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 16:41 (twenty years ago)

one month passes...

I have a crisp $100 bill in my pocket that I intend to spend on whatever Patton and Zorn projects I can find today. I would normally use a debit, but I was paid with all hundreds recently instead of a check for some reason. I will definitely be picking up this limited edition version of Suspended Animation if I can still find it anywhere.

― Unfortunate Prankster (Unfortunate Prankster), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 10:03 (twenty years ago)

It shouldn't be too hard to find that ltd. ed. According to Ipecac, the regular edition isn't scheduled for release for another two weeks.

― Mike Dixn (Mike Dixon), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 10:14 (twenty years ago)

Virgin had about 30 of them, but they were all $19.99 except for the one I found that had a $15.99 sticker on it. Came to $17.37 -- too much, but I bought it anyway.

― Unfortunate Prankster (Unfortunate Prankster), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 13:26 (twenty years ago)

I'm on song 22 now. How could anyone not like this? Okay, I guess I can understand. It's noisy, but it's not that noisy. It's very entertaining and interesting unless I've just realized I have ADD.

― Unfortunate Prankster (Unfortunate Prankster), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 14:37 (twenty years ago)

five years pass...

listening to delirium cordia and it is not as disposable as most here would have you think. saying this as a committed non-fan of mike patton and all that he says/does. crazy super sub demonoid art/noise spelunking. weirdness of a supremely high order. which is to say nice. dave lombardo ffs. always love them live, only now coming around to the recorded.

― phish in your sleazebag (contenderizer), Saturday, 20 November 2010 08:17 (fifteen years ago)

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