MR. BUNGLE — Disco Volante (review)

Album · 1995 · Metal Related

4/5 · 2010-05-28
Phonebook Eater

8/10

"Disco Volante" is the best early Avant-Garde Metal album.

Pure genius. An unforgettable album, with such a huge sense of originality and bizarre that it will really impress you, in the inside. Mike Patton's best album, only second to Faith No More's "The Real Thing", the alt metal masterpiece. But this is one of my very favorite Avant Prog albums.

The style is something that really makes you think that this band is completely nuts: the songwriting s complex, full of weird moments and sounds, played with various instruments. Many influences are present here: from heavy, death (in the last epic track), thrash metal, to jazz, to techno, to avant garde,to progressive, to classical influences. A kaleidoscope of diverse soundscapes, all very innovative and alien sounding, even though it is conceptually a very down-to-earth work.

"Everyone I went..." is probably my least favorite, but it is a very interesting intro for a RIO album. Very weird indeed."Chemical Marriage" is mellow, but a masterpiece. Three minutes where the keyboards, very oriental sounding, are mixed with a tense and at the same time calm atmosphere that really catches your attention. It's an instrumental piece that should not be underrated."Carry Stress In The Jaw" is a fabulous nine minute song, where for the first time we can hear Mike Patton (although he was present in the first track) sing, especially in the calmer and more mysterious part, that reprises every once in a while, where we can also admire the singer's emotional voice. The rest is trumpet and sax driven, creating a sort of contrast to the just mentioned mood."Desert Search For Techno Allah" is another masterpiece. An intelligent and unorthodox mix between techno and arabic music, like the title suggests. A genius piece, where there is always room for other instruments and atmospheres, that contrast the main theme."Violenza Domestica" is another masterpiece. It's not music, it's more like kitchen and domestic sounds, mixed with some scary threats whispered by Mike Patton, in Italian. As usual, there is some space for some other jazzy elements, more John Zorn like. Another genius track. "After School Special" is a fun interlude, very pleasant and melodic. "Ma Meeshka" is another oriental driven song, but with more synths and keyboards. Very interesting. "The Bends" is a ten minute long song. Again, a great song. Very minimalistic, the tones have all a lower volume, and everything is more tense and it seems like the song could explode in any moment. The innovating thing about this is that it is composed only of brief crazy pieces, that are not connected to each other except by a few seconds of silence. "Backstrucking" is an interesting interlude, good for connecting a long track with medium length one. "Platypus" is very heavy metal driven at times, while in others its pure avant garde rock. Didn't enjoy it as much as the other songs, but you should still check it out. The final track is the thirteen minute epic masterpiece of the album. It starts off with a victorious and cheerful melody, also sung by Patton. But then it explodes unexpectedly in a fierce thrashy tune, the most violent moment of the album. Also Patton features here some growls, the only song that has this kind of singing. After seven minutes the music stops, and you can listen to the hidden track, where apparently the drummer and somebody else, probably Patton, are fooling around with their instruments, accompanied by some laughs.

A genius album, like I said a few times, definitely listen to it f you're an avant prog or avant metal fan.