Responsible for one of the most eclectic catalogs of recent memory, Fantômas return with Suspended Animation, a thirty-track set that both celebrates the art of cartoon composition and the many reasons to behold the fourth month of our calendar, April (with one piece for each day of the month). Who knew that April is subtitled national humor and anxiety month? Who knew that the dreaded April 15 was actually titled That Sucks Day or that April 24 marks the beginning of National Karaoke Week? Leave it to the creative minds behind Fantômas to enlighten us to the many forgotten holidays throughout April.
The brainchild of Mike Patton, Fantômas is an anti-hero from a series of pre-WWI French crime novels, sometimes dubbed the lord of terror. Rounding out the ensemble are Buzz Osborne on guitar (Melvins), Trevor Dunn on bass (Mr. Bungle, Trevor Dunns Trio Convulsant) and Dave Lombardo on drums (Slayer).
Fantômas three previous releases have regaled listeners with a sci-fi homage (Fantômas, 1999), a celebration of the best in film composition (Directors Cut, 2001) and a one song album (Delirium Cordia, 2004). As Rolling Stone said in their review of Delirium Cordia: One epic seventy-four minute noise-rock song. Whats not to like? Now with Suspended Animation, the quartet delves headlong into a new and recently unexplored genre... cartoon music. Recorded in the Spring of 2003, during the same sessions as surgically precise Delirium Cordia, Suspended Animation is the yang to Delirium Cordias ying. Bright and loose, Patton describes the new album as nursery rhymes, cartoon sound effects and choppy arrangements.
As with all Ipecac releases, the artwork and packaging are just as integral to unfolding the full story as the piece of music, Suspended Animation is no different. Perhaps the most intricate packaging to date, the thirty page booklet/calendar is illustrated by Asian pop cartoonist Yoshimoto Nara. In a recent San Francisco Bay Guardian feature, Naras influential style was described as cartoonlike images and sculptures of kids and puppies sporting world-weary adult expressions, major attitude and salty vocabularies. The paper went on to say that Naras pieces are among the most cutting edge of Japanese exports in the contemporary art world.
MIKE PATTON & MELVINS CURATE NEXT ATP NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS!
All Tomorrow’s Parties takes great pleasure in announcing that the next curators for the Nightmare Before Christmas this December 2008 will be Mike Patton and Melvins. Both are hugely influential, innovative and vital productive forces, and we're very very pleased to be able to present performances from both as well as a fantastic bill of artists picked by them. The event will take place December 5, 6 and 7 at Butlins Holiday Camp in Minehead.
The line up so far looks like this:
Curated by Melvins
Melvins Isis Neil Hamburger Dälek Big Business
Curated by Mike Patton
Fantômas perform The Director's Cut The Locust Zu
!!!!!!!
Much love and respect... i ll do my best for being there!
"Exhibit X," a collection of digital images selected from the past two years, is now available to view at: www. flickr. com/photos/mikecrocker Any thoughts, comments, or criticisms are welcomed.
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