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Album Review
by Kaizer Soze
12-1-2005
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| Col. Claypool's Bucket of Bernie Brains |
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Colonel Claypool’s Bucket of Bernie Brains: 'The Big Eyeball in the Sky'
(Prawn Songs)
Subvertainment #1: the brill, the nuts, the thrill!!!
There’s never been more choice and thus more difficult to decide on consumption… The bravery of ameliorated culture… Music, fashion, cuisine, cooking Goddess, interior design, make-up, the art of shopping - spend! Spend! SPEND! [“Education is the enemy - keep your mind closed”, chides A Perfect Circle’s homepage.] The concluding track on the album herewith reviewed is ‘Innocence is Bliss’; therefore you should get more into the anatomy of ADucation.
This country’s obsessive nostalgia has led some to say Band Aid 20 is not as good as the original. Rubbish. With the Darkness’ OTT guitar solos, Dizzee Rascal’s rap and Travis singing with Sugarbabes, it is hilarious. Oh, that’s not the point, is it?
Rachel Stevens has been voted the World’s Pin-up, beating Britney, Beyonce, J-Lo… Will Young and Robbie Williams have become an integral part of American songbook, Coldplay’s new album is expected to do as magically as Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’, Embrace‘s next disc is rumoured to be of The Beatles’ ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Hearts Club Band’ ilk…
Talking about the milestone albums - rejoice in Westlife having sold 30 million albums already, The Darkness being as popular and as big as... The Spinal Tap… Hiss the corporations! Whatever happened with nurturing groundbreaking and seminal outfits, such as King Crimson, Roxy Music, Captain Beefheart, Police, The Clash, Sly and the Family Stone, Primus… Some of the bands Colonel Claypool’s Bucket of Bernie Brains recall at various moments on ‘The Big Eyeball in the Sky’.
Palate needs to be cultivated as much as taste, informed and updated… You can’t imagine how many times Les Claypool and Primus have kept my sanity from needing some expert attention, as well as Buckethead‘s solo work… To their realm of sonic ambiguity Bernie Worrell adds some magic keys and Brain beats the heck outta drums.
This foursome can play the souls of their instruments - Buckethead was even helping Axl Rose to finish that mythical ‘Chinese Democracy’ album until he had to give up as many lesser players before - but the point here is to explore beyond sonic spheres. There are no rules for these four weirdoes here and everything gets in the cauldron - jazz, funk, psychedelia, stoner, pop, experimental…
The opening track is ‘Buckethead’ and gives the guitarist-extraordinaire [with a peculiar habit of wearing a bucket on his head] to take us across his universe of interests that spreads from prog to cosmic to harder rock, jazz to soul, alternative to atmo-soloing… Claypool takes over the lead with his outer-limits bassing on the following few tracks [‘Thai Noodles’, ‘Tyranny of the Hunt’, as well as on ‘Hip Shot From the Slab’], it gets Latino-cum-dub/funky on ‘Elephant Ghost’ and rock-funk fusionistique on ‘Junior’… Until the title track hits you like a tonne of the most jazz-tastic funkiness!
Each song on this CD offers a different view of a cerebral panorama, a vista that can be seen for miles [if you open up your mind], a limitless dozes of exploration into depths of sounds, mutated vocals, arrangements that wouldn’t be strange to classical players... With its embossed digi-package cover, this is a release that really cares about everything: music, lyrics, atmosphere, idea, party, subversion, joy - the freedom of it, even more.
Alfie Hitchcock might have practised “absurdity quite religiously” but entertainment bosses are afraid of stepping out of the safe/bland/predictable. No surreal is spun out of the mundane, it merely remains - mediocre. Hail Colonel Claypool’s Bucket of Bernie Brains, they can freehand-draw a perfect isosceles.
Perhaps this bunch has just made a perfect soundtrack to a David Lynch’s movie…
9.9/10
Kaizer Soze
12-1-2005
Colonel Claypool’s Bucket of Bernie Brains’ album ‘The Big Eyeball in the Sky’ has been on release since 04 October 2004 via Prawn Songs (import)
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