Part of our work this year at AFDA is to make an experimental film, a film that eludes definition. Along with an experimental film the music must also compliment this. So in light of this I'm writing a short review of an experimental band, they are called Fantomas.
This relatively unknown band is the brainchild of Mike Patton, who was lead singer of experimental rock band Faith No More, the avant garde super-group consists of himself, Buzz Osborne, Trevor Dunn and Dave Lombardo.
The group is experimental in almost every facet, every album has a particular theme and this theme is taken to its highest potential. Suspended Animation is an album that uses cartoon music and fuses elements of metal, jazz, blues and electronic music to create something unheard of. Delirium Cordia is a one-song album of 74min that musically expresses a scene of a patient who is awake during surgery.
The band uses complex techniques including various polyrhythms, genre mixing, bar-changing time signatures and dramatic tempo shifts.
Fantomas continually blows my mind every time I listen to them, there is always something new to hear and it strays about as far away as you can get from commercial music, is that a good thing? You decide.
From Wikipedia,
"The band arrange albums around concepts or themes:
- Fantômas (aka Amenaza Al Mundo) is based on science fiction comic books, with every song simply given a page number (Page 1, Page 2 etc.). The artwork was mainly taken from the Italian comic Diabolik.
- The Director's Cut is a series of reinterpretations of motion picture theme songs. Some versions are rather loyal to the sources (such as the eerie lullabye from The Night of the Hunter), while others offer radical takes on the music (such as the theme from The Godfather tackled in part as a thrash metal song).
- Delìrium Còrdia is one extended song, with the concept of surgery without anesthesia.
- Suspended Animation (recorded in the same sessions as Delìrium Còrdia) is an album of twisted cartoon music, each track named after a day in the month of April 2005, and the limited-edition, first pressing of the album was itself (literally) a calendar of the month featuring the art of contemporary Japanese pop artist Yoshitomo Nara."
The only conceivable way to describe Fantomas is insane, the mental patient and just plain lunacy, but this is what makes them so beautiful at the same time. You will probably never hear this type of music anywhere else in the world.
Here is a list of links with information on the band.
Track 6 off Suspended Animation: 04/06/05 Wednesday
Wikipedia Information: Click here
Ipecac Records: Click here
Album Review 1: Click here
Album Review 2: Click here
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