UPDATE: It looks like the Fantomas live DVD will now be released on September 6th.
Judging by the title it will be from Fantomas show at The Great American Music Hall in San Francisco on 31st December, 2008, where they played The Director's Cut in its entirety, along with Simply Beautiful and Chariot Choogle. Disappointingly, I don't think Dave Lombardo played this show (as he wasn't on the tour which followed) but Dale Crover does a great job filling in.
Soon after they played the Big Day Out festival's in New Zealand and Australia. Here's some footage from that tour:
Due to his role in Faith No More and his massive array of other projects since, and also because he's a complete genius, Mike Patton is the most well known member of Mr. Bungle. While he played a large part in making Faith No More and Tomahawk what they are/were, they were never solely his responsibility. Fantômas is his baby, his creation, his warped point of view.
(Ipecac Recordings, 2005)
Fantômas have released four studio albums to date; their self-titled debut was (and still is) unlike anything I’ve heard; experimental to say the least, with Mike Patton using his voice to frighteningly great effect. Next came an album of horror movie songs, The Director’s Cut, which was surprisingly accessible. The masterpiece in Patton’s entire library would have to be Delìrium Còrdia, a 74 minute mind-fuck where the listener overlooks a surgical procedure. However, for me, Suspended Animation best sums up Fantômas – playfully evil.
The album retains Fantômas dark and twisted way of looking at things. Patton is once again screaming, squealing, and making any other sound effect he finds appropriate; his support cast of Buzz Osborne (Melvins, guitar), Dave Lombardo (Slayer, drums), Trevor Dunn (Mr. Bungle, bass) as precise as ever. The difference comes with the abundance of samples, but they’re not just any samples; they’re all linked to children. Cartoons, toys, and kids laughing and playing; not exactly what you associate with music of this variety.
Each track represents a day in April, and by 04/10/05 Saturday there’s an overload of samples and a myriad of "uh oh’s", "bye bye’s", and "boing’s" thrown in. 04/24/05 Sunday is a prelude to the work Patton did on the Crank 2: High Voltage soundtrack and 04/14/05 Thursday somehow stands out above the rest, its production simply superb.
The end result is total meltdown of your senses best listened to on headphones; disturbing yet cheeky, sinister yet merry. It’s pure Patton; you’re unable to tell if he’s just plain evil or if he’s got tongue firmly planted in cheek and is just fucking with your head.
Remember those series of books about useless Japanese inventions? Well, this album is exactly like one of those; utterly ridiculous… but at the same time so wonderfully absurd that you can’t get enough.
Cell-Scape starts off innocently enough; Phantasmagoria, a noise-metal-ish intro leads into Shield for Your Eyes, a Beast in the Well on Your Hand which has a math-rock Battles type feel. All well and good until BANG! The vocals hit you like a tonne of duster slippers for cats (socks for your cat, with little mops attached, so that the cat dusts the floor as it moves around). Melt-Banana are a strange band and Yasuko Onuki’s vocals are one of the stranger elements; her voice sounding like something out of Pokemon having a disagreement with a tantrum throwing Japanese schoolgirl.
In addition to Onuki’s vocals, the fact that they are from Japan and some of the song titles make Melt-Banana an intriguing band. But apart from having song titles like A Dreamer Who is Too Weak to Face Up to and A Hunter in the Rain to Cut the Neck Up in the Present Stage, they are more than just a novelty act due to the strength of guitarist Ichirou Agata who displays an amazing array of techniques and effects, he is particularly brilliant on Lost Parts Stinging Me So Cold and Like a White Bat in a Box, Dead Matters Go On.
Joining Onuki and Agata on Cell-Scape is bassist Rika Hamamoto and a drum machine. Together they make music which is like Isis on speed; Key is a Fact That a Cat Brings is like someone swinging a cat at a Fantomas concert, If it is the DeepSea, I Can See You There is like someone swinging a cat at a J-pop concert. Melt-Banana is the cat being swung.
