Mike Patton
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Zero 7 has turned into a veritable Beth Orton factory, or something like that. The latest femme fatale to emerge from the Zero 7 harem of alluring vocalists is Sophie Barker. Like fellow sistas-in-sultriness Tina Dico and Sia, Barker’s right at home in the kind of electro-organic settings that Zero 7 have masterfully appropriated from trip-hoppers like Portishead and, come to think of it, those pesky Cocteau Twins. Indeed, Barker hooked up with Robin Guthrie of the Cocteaus for her debut album, Earthbound (Emperor). It came out in the UK last year and, thanks to Sia’s surprising success her in the US, is finally out here.Beyond that, this is one of the weakest Tuesdays in recent memory for new releases. Primus huckster Les Claypool, who in our book gets a lifetime pass for writing the South Park theme song, is — for better or worse — back at it on Of Whales and Woe (Prawn Song), his latest solo venture. In case you haven’t figured out the formula yet, that means a degree of unabashed slap-happy lead-bass that would make Flea blush — so much that it overrides the genuine grooves Claypool and his band manage to generate. The gang this time out includes Gabby La La on sitar, avant-rock dude Skerik on sax, Mike (not Matt) Dillon on marimba, Cage Claypool on percussion, and Lena Claypool just sorta helping out. That’s correct: no guitar. Because who the hell needs guitar when you’ve got Les Claypool and an eight-string bass?
That other art-damaged ’90s alt-rock renegade, Mike Patton (remember Faith No More?), is back with what he’s touting as his most accessible album since, well, Faith No More. In other words, it’s not a Fantomas record. For those of you who have been following Patton’s career over the past decade, he's been unguardedly indulging his taste for the avant with various projects, from a revived Mr. Bungle to the experimental metal of the aforementioned Fantomas to the more straightforward but still plenty skewed Tomahawk. If the guest list on the self-titled Ipecac debut by his new project Peeping Tom isn’t enough to give avant-Patton fans pause, then this statement to Billboard—“This is my version of pop music” — just might. Essentially, Patton traded tapes with Massive Attack, Bebel Gilberto, and, yep, Norah Jones, as the album came together. But just to make sure things didn’t get too accessible, he retained his friends in the Melvins as a backing band, and kept wildcards like Kool Keith in the mix. Come to think of it, Peeping Tom could just be Patton’s best album yet.
Jamie Lidell — the best British blue-eyed soulman since, um, Jamiroquai? –– spent most of the last year collecting kudos on both sides of the Atlantic for his Warp album Multiply. Of course, Warp’s really more of a DJ/electronica label. So, it’s no surprise that Multiply has multiplied. Four Tet, Luke Vibert, and Mocky all get in on the 10-track Multiply Additions (Warp), a disc’s worth of new DJ mixes of old tracks, plus live renditions of Lidell favorites like “You Got Me Up” and “Game For Fools.”
If the two remixes by Herbert on Multiply Additions are to your liking, well, welcome to the very strange world of one of the more adventurous DJs out there. And I do mean out there. Herbert’s got his own new album to promote, Scale (!K7), and half the fun of it is in reading about some of the extremes he went to in order to get the twisted sounds that adorn the grooves here. Apparently, drummers were coerced into recording underwater, in a hot air balloon, and in a speeding car. But Herbert (given name Matthew Herbert) is apparently not pleased with the Blair/Bush alliance over Iraq (song titles include “Something Isn’t Right,” “The Movers and the Shakers,” and just plain “Wrong”), so he’s adorned Scale with accessible melodies and enough dancefloor hooks to insure this doesn’t get thrown in the musique concrete bin, even if fuel pumps and creaking coffins were used to get those sounds.
