Les Claypool - Of Fungi and Foe

  by Adrian Huggins

published: 10 / 5 / 2009

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If you know who Les Claypool is the chances are that you are probably a Primus fan, or that you once heard Primus and were so freaked out by them that you made a mental note of lead singer and bassist Les Claypool’s name in order to avoid him again at all costs. For those who fall into the latter category you may wish to hide. He sounds like a man who has actually lost the plot. I do not know what planet this man lives on or where he finds his inspiration and ideas from, but they are fantastic. His new solo album is not an easy listen. It is something that the most hardcore of Primus fans would have a job getting into, but it is by no means impossible. It takes the main elements of Primus and and then takes them to extremes accordingly. It is choked full of mind-blowing bass lines and paints strange landscapes which must surely only make sense to Les Claypool himself and people who find good company in the form of imaginary dragons and dead presidents. To put it mildly, it is the type of music that really takes a lot of getting used to and which you certainly have to be in the right frame of mind for. It manages, however, to be experimental without even any hint of pretense and it is playful and delightful in its insanity. Mr Bungle fans would love this sort of thing. It has that same Patton stamp of music nuttery on it. A lot of Claypool's work relies on his incredible bass playing, which is inventive and so forward thinking that you can’t help but see that behind all the madness there is highly talented musician at work. Songs like ‘Red State Girl’ and ‘Boonville Stomp’ have the same sort of twisted hillbilly leanings that Primus have always seemed to incorporate into their music. A lot of the music comes from work that Claypool has been writing for both computer game and animation soundtracks, which perhaps explains why much of this album seems to take place in another world. This is, however, what makes Les Claypool one of the greats. It really is like nothing you will have ever heard before. As a bass player I am always utterly intrigued to hear how he uses effects and playing techniques to get the unique sounds which he seems to sweat out. To put it all in context, the most ‘sane’ sounding song on the album is 'Bite Out of Life' which features Eugene Hutz from gypsy punk superstars Gogol Bordello. If you are familiar with Hutz's work, you will see exactly what we are dealing with here, and it perfectly mixes the gypsy rythmms and folky guitar sounds of Gogol Bordello with Claypool’s bass playing to stunning effect. If you are up for a challenge and have the time on you hands, then this might be the album for you. You won’t ever have heard anything like this before. For anyone else though it may just be to far removed from this world to digest.

Track Listing:-

1 Mushroom Men
2 Amanitas
3 Red State Girl
4 Booneville Stomp
5 What Would Sir George Martin Do
6 You Can't Tell Errol Anything
7 Bite Out Of Life
8 Kazoo
9 Primed by 29
10 Pretty Little Song
11 Of Fungi And Foe
12 Ol' Rosco

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