Customer Reviews

Sister Phantom Owl Fish

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

If you are reading this review it seems likely Mr. Bungle and Fantomas are bands that blow your mind. Either you like those bands or you don't.

Trevor Dunn is the bass player for Bungle and Fantomas, and his solo Album is nothing like Bungle or Fantomas. And if you are a fan of those bands, this is good news to you because you like DIFFERENT. You are probably one of the few people on the planet who likes new, challenging and difficult-to-categorize music.

I want to keep this review simple. Dunn's bass playing is simply stunning. The album was recorded in three days. It sounds three-days raw, yet also sounds as polished and perfect as something that took a year to record. Dichotomy? Yes.

The album is three-piece. (guitar, bass, drums) It is also Jazz, yet it is not. It is not Zorn-like (Zorn is the Jazz master who produced Bungle's first album.) This music is confrontational, loud and abrasive, yet much of it is mellow, complex and listenable.

This album is theraputic. It will help you puke up the monoculture that surrounds us. It is ugly. It is beautiful. It is pure musicianship and creativity. You will be glad you bought it. For those of you that thought Fantomas "Delirium Cordia" wandered without a point or riffed too much on Zorn's "Absynthe", this album is what you are looking for. It is a dichotomy of simple/complex beautiful/ugly that will satisfy any true music afficionado.

Free Jazz is alive and well and living in San Fran.

I have been a devout fan of Mr. Bungle for quite sometime. All of these guys are great composers, Dunn being no exception. He has written some of my favorite pieces of music, including "Dead Goon," "Carry Stress in the Jaw," "Platypus," and "The Holy filament(sp?)."

With his trio, Dunn indulges his affinity for avant/free jazz with glowing results. There is plenty of structure here. The songs mostly follow a standard jazz format: Head, solos, head, out. The written material is harmonically expanded, very sophisticated stuff (of course) and Dunn really shows off his knowledge and musicality. The solo sections are most often "free" is the best sense of the term, slowly expanding upon the rhythmic, harmonic, and melodic motifs stated in the head.

The guitar playing is extremely odd, always erradic and sometimes annoying. For my taste, there is a bit too much high-pitched, frantic slide noise - kind of a Sonny Sharrock thing. It's interesting at first, but he seems to over-use this trick. But, like I said, it is still growing on me.

If you liked Bungle's Disco Volante and you also appreciate good avant improvisational music, this disc is perfect for you.

It seems as if you can't please some people. While Trevor's compositions are as strong as ever on this new offering, there is a large contigencey of Mr. Bungle fans that just won't "get" this record, because it doesn't sound like Bungle. Fortunately, for the rest of us, it reflects more upon Trevor's personal influences, e.g. metal, jazz, and especially the 20th and 21st century "classical" music of which he is an avid student. While the bass parts are strong, they rarely dominate the songs; in fact, they are the result of Trevor's years as a sideman in all genres of music. So, if you are looking for a funk-metal bass virtuoso revival, this record will disappoint; however, if you like to hear unique approaches to compositional forms, melody/harmony, and rhythm, then you will find this record a grand step in our ever-expanding modern musical vocabulary. Oh yeah, and its also fun to listen to.

This album is an instrumental fusion of jazz, metal, and rock. Trevor Dunn's skills as a bassist and composer continue to impress, and the chemistry between him and his trio is electric. Listening to this album, I was reminded of Naked City, Fima Ephron, and Mr. Bungle's Disco Volante (well, the Trevor Dunn tracks, especially "Carry Stress in the Jaw"). I would recommend this album to any fans of the previously mentioned artists, as well as anyone interested in contemporary avant-garde jazz.

This album has been one of my greatest influences. Trevor Dunn is a genious. I had first listened to him during the Fantomas years. Director's Cut was the first Ipecac album i had bought. Back then i was unaware of Dunn, but now he is the crux of my creative inspiraton. This album describes the exact way i feel when i am tired or restless and i am struggling to be active in whatever i am doing. The best way to listen to this album is when you come home after a long day and are half asleep. Or just listen to it.

Being a long time fan of all things Zorn/Patton/Dunn related...my musical journey brought me to this album. What a masterpiece this is...of course this is merely my opinion, but if you like free jazz, carefully placed dissonance/harmony, and excellent improvization, this is what you need!(assuming you also like the previously mentioned artists as well- which is not a pre-requisite, but certainly all worth investigating)
This trio indulges in clever, sometimes swingin' yet surprisingly structured pieces that never disappoint. There are flashes of utter car- crash-pile-up-noise-delight and moments of soothing (bordering on ambient at times) passages. It is difficult to tell how much of this is improvized and how much is pre-written. I can only assume from the parties involved that there is a bulk of pre-rendering and the improvized solo spots. For all I know it is mostly improvized. Regardless of my speculative ramblings, IT IS BRILLIANT. I have followed my interests musically to this point and think that this is the crux of electro-fusion-jazz done right. The trio's first album, "debutantes & Centipedes" is every bit as good and well worth tracking down (if this sound is your thing)...for us weirdos who get off on the unpredictable and avant garde, this trio is heavenly and the culmination of all things musically exceptional.....

if you dig this trio, be sure to check out John Zorn and his label Tzadik.
but also investigate Richard Woodson's Ellipsis. He is a guitarist who grew up under similar circumstances to Trevor Dunn...and plays jazz spiced with the aggression of metal. His first album is on Cuneiform records (I LOVE THAT LABEL...ALL OF THEIR BANDS ARE OUTSTANDING!).

maybe I should do a Rich Woodson review, eh?

either way, this album is Aces and the best thing I have heard in a long time. Love the inclusion of harp on the song "the single petal of a rose". Oh what a masterpiece......buy it!

i saw trio convulsant in concert with vaz and the melvins this past summer. i went for the melvins, but trio convulsant left the deepest impression on me. the music was a contradiction. it was horrific, yet it was also the most beautiful thing i had ever heard. it was beyond explanation. i was intrigued and repulsed by it. but i still loved every second of it. there were some who just didn't get it. the metalheads, the punk rock elitists... they constantly screamed during the songs, but they were just ignorant. what do they know about good music anyway? i immediately picked up this cd after the show. it's been on constant rotation in my stereo ever since.

a musician you may like if you dig trio-convulsant is Gordon Grdina... look him up! underground music is our friend! support the underdog!

2 1/2

SPOF has its moments of asymmetrical thrash jazz-metal glee, and a few songs hint at the fantastic work this fractured bassist can provide with a little conscious refinement, but for the most part this Bungle-boy continues to indulge in too much style with not enough substance, articulated by constant overuse of scraggly guitar lines which serve only to provide pseudo-edge to deflated momentum.

This album is very interesting. It's not a masterpiece, but it is not a piece of crap either. I think if I had to name this music I would call it: Hell's Jazz. But that doesn't really do it justice, becuase there are parts that are really quite beautiful as well as evil parts. It is great music that reminds me of Disco Volante a lot. It's a different type of bass playing then what you might be use to with Mr. Bungle and Fantomas, but once you're into it, there's no turning back.