MR BUNGLE: California (PROGRESSIVE ROCK): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

If progressive rock is a compendium of everything good music has to offer, then Mr. Bungle is the most prog' of all bands. Founded by Mike Patton, the acrobatic singer of the metal band Faith no More, Mr Bungle is a new avatar of this exceptional musician and performer, his delirious and hallucinated facet.

"California". A sober and unadorned title, a white cover like a bottle of coconut punch, pictures of flowers as in "American Beauty". Here we are with the best of America, the nectar of new world music. Mr. Bungle, it's better than anything.

We start with "Sweet charity", a (first) delirium with Hawaiian accents and glamour. Then "None of them knew they were robots", a track with a breathless rhythm that tells the story of the machine-driven revolution. All out of step and not taken seriously, this breathtaking track alternates metal passages, jazzy commas on the sax, and resolutely second degree organs that sound like a happy remake of the credits of Scoubidou. "None of them..." is a concentrate of pure manic delirium, a crazy and oppressive track, frenetic and incredibly inventive.

And it goes on and on. "Retrovertigo", beautiful to cry, between the crystalline Fender Rhodes and the saturated guitar. "Pink Cigarette", a suicidal piece, a fake slow song with fifties accents and a real piece of sonorous bravery. "Vanity Fair", the total absence of inhibition in a tiny little song to laugh and blow the last fuse we had left.

Mr Bungle is pure "progressive". This is the spirit that animated Genesis or Queen, which burns in the veins of the five member-composers. "California" never sounds like a retelling of the seventies masterpieces. It's a real research and a real brainstorming of the 2000s. If the coming millennium sounds like Mr. Bungle, then we will all die happy. - Official website

MR BUNGLE

CALIFORNIA

WARNER

PROGRESSIVE ROCK