siLLy puPPy
When an artist is tagged as being recommended for fans of Mr Bungle, Secret Chiefs 3, Estradasphere, Buckethead or Primus then you got my attention. And such is the case for IDIOT SAINT CRAZY which is the solo project of Valentin Carrette who is the front man for the French avant-prog meets zeuhl project called Yolk. FLUO DEAD BOY is his debut album under the IDIOT SAINT CRAZY moniker and like the influences aforementioned, contains a bizarre and creative new mix of diverse elements that offer a totally new insight into a corner of the musical universe you never knew existed. Ah, i love the avant-garde! A term that tells you nothing about what the music is, but rather tells you what it is not and that would be an established pattern of compositional construct.
What can i say about this one? Well, weird! But not so weird you can take it in. Valentin Carette is a guitar virtuoso of sort. Not the flashy technical Steve Vai sort but rather a more elusive beast much more like a constructor of new musical paradigms and atmospheres in the way Fred Frith did in Henry Cow and his avant-prog influences carry through on this solo project as well. While i wouldn’t call IDIOT SAINT CRAZY metal per se, it contains many metal aspects much like bands like Secret Chiefs 3 do such as heavy guitar riffing, frenetic energetic tempos and extreme distortion. While some tracks are purely atmospheric, some like “The Street” use the heaviest elements of metal and wrap them around some sort of gypsy or Klezmer folk riff with cartoonish sound effects and some sort of primal tribal chanting.
FLUO DEAD BOY, a title that is as nebulous and strange as the music it contains is a very consistent album that takes the pulsating flow of Krautrock laced with electronic atmospheric sound effects and then inserts a rather cartoonish Klezmer folk riffing as the main musical scaffolding however instead of using traditional folk patterns of delivery, the music is sort of teased out into an extended post-metal sort of creeping crescendo. It sounds even weirder when Carette includes instruments like the banjo, theremin, xylophone and many others i can’t easily identify. This album obviously utilizes the many possibilities of a synthesizer as it was completely recorded in a bedroom with an SM57 digital multi-effect system on a laptop in 2006. Add to that a little Link Ray rockabilly, surf rock and screechy classical violin.
FLUO DEAD BOY is quite the brilliant slice of creative output. While there is a consistent flow throughout the entire release, the tracks vary substantially. Laced with seductive post-rock elements that lull one into Krautrock soundscapes that evolve into tribal polyrhythms, horn fueled proggy counterpoints and bouts with extreme contradictory elements signing a truce for the sake of a good instrumental, this album is quite mature in how it’s laid out, constructed and executed. While mostly instrumental, there are a few moments where vocals are used sort of as a percussive chanted effect. The electronic parts when used are very strange and decidedly brilliant and some are purely ethereal. While i would also cite the IDIOT SAINT CRAZY sound’s closest musical relative as Secret Chiefs 3 or Mr Bungle, this is by no means a clone and could never be mistaken for any other act. If you want some cool experimental rock with metal elements on board, this is highly recommended.