Deltron 3030 does Deltron 3030: Del is a weird rapper and has kind of a whiny voice that's hard to get used to. But Deltron 3030 is his cinematic masterpiece, and this album makes his rapping and voice work. It took me a long time to hear the individual songs on this album, because it flows from song to song so well. 3030 is a joke about the future, about the music business, about politics, and probably some other stuff. There's some really phenomenal, mellow and varied hip hop going on. Plus, Del's raps are relaxed and effortless here.
When I just read the Wikipedia page for Deltron 3030, I just discovered a few things I never knew. That this belongs to a genre called "acid rap", and that there's actually a second Deltron 3030 album coming out. I can't believe it, I always assumed it was a one time thing.
Mr. Bungle does California: Most people who have even heard of Mike Patton know him as the lead singer of Faith No More who did that song with the piano where the fish flops around at the end. He's a lovely guy, and I've met more than three guys who say they would go bisexual for Mike Patton only.
But, he's so concerned with his totally insane-o image, that it's hard for him to make the lovely music he's capable of. The first Mr. Bungle album, the self-titled Mr. Bungle, was a side project and he filled it with fart noises, swearing, and noise filled, explosive clownlike heavy metal. It's not the LEAST accessible Mike Patton album but it alienated lots of Faith No More fans who wanted to see what else he was up to.
That's why no one every listened to California. For a normal Mr. Bungle fan it's bizarrely soothing, and to anyone else who heard the first Mr. Bungle album they would assume it was like it. It's not. It couldn't be more different and still have the same person singing.
Mike actually just came out with a new Band/Album (he usually just comes out with new bands instead of new albums) called Peeping Tom. This was his attempt at making quality pop music, instead of crazy heavy metal, or just random insane noise like his other solo/side projects. He said, "If I were going to hear pop music on the radio, this is what I would want it to sound like."
But California is what I'd like it to sound like. Not that there aren't weird noise moments, in general it is a smooth as butter set of groove lounge hymns. This is beautiful music that just gets better with time.
Beck does One Foot in the Grave: Beck... right around the same time he was making crazy money for the first time with Loser, got a side record deal to record two silly albums that he knew had no commercial potential. One was the strange, eclectic, Stereopathic Soulmanure. The other was One Foot in the Grave.
It's a mostly acoustic mix of wierd songs that sound like white trash negro spirituals. I think some of them really are spirituals... like He's a Mighty Good Leader. But some, like I Get Lonesome are spirituals only for suburbanites. He talks about how he stomps on the floor just to make a sound. These are weak-willed, strong-hearted songs to blast in the forest. This is a real, sincere album! It's rough, it's ragged, and it has great songwriting throughout and almost no polish. This is one of those albums I wouldn't blame anyone for hating, but I love it. It's the soundtrack to white loneliness.
