DON SALSA - Fans of Naked City and Mr. Bungle, get the hell in here

[The Mollusk]

I was listening to Estradasphere's overly-long but nevertheless brilliant genre-bending epic Buck Fever on a lovely walk round the wetlands this morning and decided to have a rummage to see what other projects the various members have been up to across their careers. I'm aware of their work with artists like Secret Chiefs 3 and Eyvind Kang but these lads are so immensely talented I was sure there would be more great material to unearth.

What I didn't know is that, whilst still in high school, budding genius Tim Smolens and four other friends started the band Don Salsa, and in 1997 self-produced and self-released the album Koolaid Moustache in Jonestown. Limited to one pressing, it had been completely unavailable since 2001 until it resurfaced a decade and a half later.

This album is fucking bonkers and a lot of fun. Although it's not as restrained or refined as other staples of this scene (not least of all John Zorn's Naked City, which is clearly the biggest influence on the project), it is still surprisingly cohesive, considering its members were in their late teens and the whole thing was made on a pair of fucking ADATs by constantly bouncing down all the channels and layering on top each track (a method used to mind-boggling effect in the chaotic and indescribable 31-minute opening track).

Honestly, despite the slapdash amateurism you might be picturing based on the above information, this album is remarkably good. Its absurd ambition and total genre-screwing defiance is highly comparable to Disco Volante (though its punk aesthetic stops it from achieving the same sonic/structural brilliance) and its disturbing deconstruction of extreme metal tropes is often on par with Faxed Head's avant-metal nightmare Chiropractic (which would come 4 years later). If nothing else, it serves as a brilliant snapshot of these artists who would go on to become very respected in their field less than a decade later. If you're a fan of the other artists mentioned in this post, I would consider this to be essential listening.

https://donsalsa.bandcamp.com/album/koolaide-moustache-in-jonestown

[Noodle Lizard]

Cheers for this! I listened to the opening 30-minute track and, while it's very technically competent/impressive for their age, it's a little too derivative of each of its influences for me to engage with it fully - a "throwing them all at the wall" kind of thing. The reason I love Mr Bungle (and SC3 and Naked City, to a lesser extent) is that I'd not heard anything quite like them before, despite being familiar with a lot of their influences. The influences there seem blended together to create something unique, whereas the influences here seem just "arranged in order", if that makes any sense at all.

I'd be interested to hear other folks' reactions, though, as I'm probably a bit poisoned by my Bungle-devotion.

[The Mollusk]

I get what you mean. I think its saving grace in that respect is that it doesn't take itself seriously whatsoever, and is quite shamelessly a batshit collage, whereas Disco Volante is so perfectly arranged it is practically crystalline in its relative fug of sprawling influences and sporadic pirouettes of style. That said, throughout The Deck's 31-minute duration I frequently found myself grinning or raising an eyebrow or even laughing at the audaciousness of the thing (whereas it could have quite easily been a stupid fucking awful mess in the wrong hands) so it definitely is a success to that extent at least.

Let me know if you listen to the rest of the album, as there's a little more cohesion to the rest of it (at least the majority of the song snippets are actually broken into separate tracks) whereas I think The Deck is designed to be deliberately off-putting in its abstruse, erratic assault of weirdness.

I may have asked this here before, seeing as I am an obsessive fan, but are you into Estradasphere at all? I think of all the madcap genre-skipping bands out there, they're surely one of the absolute best. Their albums can be a little inconsistent but at their peak (such as Hardball, Meteorite Showers, or the fucking epic Hunger Strike) they are some of the best to ever do it. The first 5 tracks on Buck Fever are completely thrilling, such a remarkable achievement.

[Shaky]

Buck Fever has lots of cracking stuff on it but for me it's a bit too reminiscent/derivative of Bungle's California. Certain tracks reek of the same vibe. Something about such blatant hero worship rubs me up the wrong way. I find Quadropus much more coherent and pretty much a banger all the way through. Obvs the Bungle thing is still present in a big way but a more distinct personality is apparent.

[The Mollusk]

I think Buck Fever has enough going for it that it can be forgiven for wearing the same sun-drenched doo-wop influences on its sleeve as California and for it to succeed on its own merit. It's a bizarre concept album about the homoerotic white male toxicity of big game hunting, and there's an abundance (arguably an overabundance) of chiptune, death metal and symphonic black metal all given a strong focus which also sets it apart. I also think the tracks which are reminiscent of California have far more breakneck jolts through genres which are carried out remarkably well.

I wouldn't really call it "hero worship" as such, either, as I think both bands are totally sufficient in their own right. They definitely occupy the same platform of musical ability but I wouldn't ever say that Estradasphere are trying too hard to sound like Mr. Bungle. They're all incredibly talented multi-instrumentalists and are highly proficient at nailing the various styles they explore in their music.

Sorry for ranting a bit, but I'm an enormous fan of both bands and I would say any similarities between the two are no more grating than two punk bands who sound alike.

[Puce Moment]

Ticking lots of boxes dear Mollusk - many thanks. I will report when it has finished.

Not much of a fan of Bungle, but Naked City is up there as one of the best.

[ASFTSN]

Yeah for me Naked City/Zorn projects do this well (Electric Masada is insane), everyone else I often frequently think "yeah well done, now what?". One thing I will say is I appreciated the lo-fi nature of the Don Salsa track, this sort of stuff works better for me if it's got more murk.

As for deconstructing metal tropes - I think this is best done by actual metal bands.

[The Mollusk]

As for deconstructing metal tropes - I think this is best done by actual metal bands.

I think there's much to be said about both parties doing it. Heavy metal has always had a sense of humour to me (as in the Sabbath thread where I mentioned their early work having similar goofy/spooky appeal to classic Hammer films like The Devil Rides Out), but I do love when bands with an actual full-blown comedy edge start ripping it apart, too.

Have you ever heard Faxed Head (featuring Trey Spruance on guitar/production duties and Neil Hamburger/Greg Turkington on vocals)? The above mentioned Chiropractic is a great success in that it manages to be genuinely revolting, dark and heavy but also funny as fuck. Personally I'd say it's a cut above being a novelty and they have a rightful place in whatever weird part of the musical spectrum they occupy.

[ASFTSN]

Have you ever heard Faxed Head (featuring Trey Spruance on guitar/production duties and Neil Hamburger/Greg Turkington on vocals)? The above mentioned Chiropractic is a great success in that it manages to be genuinely revolting, dark and heavy but also funny as fuck. Personally I'd say it's a cut above being a novelty and they have a rightful place in whatever weird part of the musical spectrum they occupy.

I have, many years ago after reading about them on Mark Prindle's site. I remember thinking "Yeah...it's fine." I'll revisit.

[Puce Moment]

As for deconstructing metal tropes - I think this is best done by actual metal bands.

This brings to mind Zeal & Ardor. I don't know much about their fan base - but do they have 'proper' metal fans or is just Hoxton cunts?

[Dirty Boy]

Buck Fever has lots of cracking stuff on it but for me it's a bit too reminiscent/derivative of Bungle's California. Certain tracks reek of the same vibe. Something about such blatant hero worship rubs me up the wrong way. I find Quadropus much more coherent and pretty much a banger all the way through. Obvs the Bungle thing is still present in a big way but a more distinct personality is apparent.

Same.

I do like Estradasphere, and of the many Bungle-oids they are no doubt one of the best (along with SGM and Idiot Flesh who in truth don't sound that similar really), but i find them a bit overly genre-hoppy in quite a cynical way. these days i always go to Secret Chiefs 3 or Farmers Market who dabble more convincingly in this Balkan flavoured Prog Jazz doodah. Love a bit of Naked City/Electric Masada as well.

The first SC3 album is practically Disco Volante's little brother and by the time you get to Book M it sounds like Ars Morendi shot out of a rocket exhaust. Somehow despite this they have a more unified and distinctive sound than any of those other bands, Bungle included.

Haven't heard Don Salsa yet. will do.

[Neville Chamberlain]

This is a very nostalgic thread for me, as I used to listen to Buck Fever quite a lot when I was on my near-constant, early-noughties search for genre-hoppy Bungle-alikes. I hoovered up this sort of stuff, Estradasphere included. But ultimately, I had to be honest, I didn't really enjoy it all that much, not nearly as much as I enjoyed Bungle anyway, and certainly nowhere near as much as, say, Cardiacs. OK, there were there were quite a few passages in some of the songs that were pretty impressive, and I used to zero in on those bits as justification for desperately attempting liking the whole lot, but I was always left a bit cold by the whole thing, so much so that I turned my back on ultra-complex, rather clinical genre-hoppy stuff and instead found my feet in stuff like NoMeansNo, Uz Jsme Doma, Pigment Vehicle, etc. - it had the complexity I found thrilling, but without all the 'Look at us, guys!" stuff going on around it. I guess it's the punk attitude shining through, which I found sorely lacking in the likes of Estradasphere and some of the rather sterile math-rock bands I'd also started checking out. Oh yeah, and I've never enjoyed metal - whether straight-up or pastiche - so I guess that didn't exactly help my enjoyment of these bands much, who had this bizarre propensity to launch into a death metal bit complete with silly vocals. Like I said, I couldn't care if it was for real, for a laugh or just as a 'thrilling' juxtaposition with a bit of Balkan dance music.

Having said all of that, and despite what I just said there about 'metal bits', I fucking love Bungle (and, for that matter, Secret Chiefs) to this day and Disco Volante will never be outside my top five favourite albuls of all time. There's an atmosphere to Bungle, a real dark atmosphere - especially on Disco Volante - that, for me, none of the Bungle-alikes could match.

Now, having said all of that, I'm actually pretty tempted to give Buck Fever another listen, if only for personal nostalgia reasons... :-)

[Dirty Boy]

Buck Fever

It is very front loaded innit? Sounds great to begin with, but i got sick of it after Millennium Child.

I enjoyed hearing it again more than i thought i would though. It feels a bit harsh of me to use the word cynical in my last post, but the genre-cycling Zappary cut and paste bits don't really work for me anymore. Forgot about The Dapper Bandits, banger that.

[boki]

Enjoying this.  Reminds me quite a bit of a.P.A.t.T.

[FsF]

Fans of Naked City, Mr. Bungle, Don Salsa and Estradasphere get the hell into this post!

High Castle Teleorkestra, the new project led by Tim Smolens, had finished recording their typically genre-encompassing debut album, and recently launched (an already successful and fulfilled) Kickstarter campaign for physical media, stretch goals, and all that good stuff.

High Castle Teleorkestra: First Album Pre-Order

The album contributors and credits feature a plethora of familiar folks from the California experimental rock extended universe (Bungleheads Danny Heifetz and Bär McKinnon, Estradafellows John Whoolie, Dave Murray and Timba Harris) as well as guitar geek Chris Bogen and very excitingly, genuine Balkan folk music and accordion expert Stian Carstensen.

I can't say the general feel of the music released so far has surprised me, given the guys' previous output, but that's not an issue whatsoever, coming as a pretty recent and ravenous convert to this sort of thing.

Album preview on YouTube.

Very happy to have more mad Balkan folk metal / jazz / funk / doo-wop / etc out there!

[The Mollusk]

Sounds promising, although the slapdash energy of the editing on that promo/plug video didn't exactly get me massively hyped up for it. They are amazing musicians though, I've been listening to Secret Chiefs 3 a lot lately and Timba Harris has always been a stellar part of their lineup.