BUCK FEVER

Talk about eclectism: 8/10

ESTRADASPHERE is a side-project of musicians from SECRET CHIEFS 3 which in turn was originally a side-project (but now permanent) of Trey Spruance from MR BUNGLE. The only similarity on the three bands though is that they all are avant-garde and share somewhat mutual musicians because their approach on experimental music differ completely.

The experimental eminence of ESTRADASPHERE lies on their lack of cohesion, or "innovative songwriting and structuring" if you like fancy definitions, but NOT on inaccessible and difficult Frankenstein as say grandpa MR BUNGLE builds. This characteristic (approachability) was inherited (and improved) from daddy SECRET CHIEFS 3. Therefore, it's pretty accessible. A pleasant surprise.

The songs in BUCK FEVER, as said, are fragmented and disjoint (uncoherent), they present various sections all of which demonstrate different genres which dynamically alters between the vast arrays of styles within the multi- instrumentalist six musicians' grasp. In a moment, they might be playing jazzy bossa nova, moving right after to circus music and then to symphonic funk. There are also generous doses of black metal (although they are isolated in their own tracks, they don't interact with the multi-stylistical tracks) and rather humorous video game 8-bit songs (and a jazz swing cover of Super Mario Bros 2's theme!).

They could develop their ideas freely, as apparently money was not an issue: not only the record has great quality but also there is a huge assortment of multiethnic instruments, ranging from (Australian) Aboriginal horns to African percussions. I find the variety refreshing, the gigantic amount of things they use guarantee unique multiplicity of sounds. However, I need to acknowledge they have a clear preference for brass instruments, as they are nigh omnipresent and peppers almost every song.

For as much there is a constant shift with countless styles, ESTRADASPHERE does present moments with their unique sound, a syncretism of jazz (pre-bop? Post-bop? Hard-bop? Something bop, I guess), symphonic brass and a delicious funky slappy electric guitar.

Worth mentioning is the concept, blurred between ironic appraisal and implicit criticism of ole 'Murican idolatry of hunting. Buck fever is actually a term for Americans hell-bent on killing every single horned ruminant mammal (deer) within their vicinities' temperate woods. I say the concept is difficult to understand because there are moments that can be identified as criticism but also lapses of sarcasm, and it begs the question: are they indeed detractors or just jesting around? Personally, I feel that they express their humorous, satirical view on this issue through their jazz/rock tracks, whereas their thoughtful ecologist opinions are expressed in the black metal ones.

Back to the music. I will be honest. The first time I listened to their album I went to delirium. The musicianship is indeed spectacular, the copious amounts of intertwined layers that confers enthusiasm, the brassy overload, the symphonic black metal pieces? I was betting my buttons this would be a favorite of mine. Sadly, it isn't: 72 minutes is perhaps too long for me. After a while, the ecstatic boot loses adrenaline and ESTRADASPHERE's hitherto absurd deliciousness vanishes. Well, I still think them of proficient experimental (jazz) musicians, but not as brave genre voyagers as I used to.

The reason why I still highly regard (and rate) this album, though, is that its highlights are indeed worth highlighting. It begins with the dystopian and environmentalist The Silent Elk of Yesterday. Through mighty symphonies that build a dark atmosphere, female soprano singings and melodic black metal riffs, the band leaves its dystopian thoughts on the overly predatory behavior of men. Happily, there's none of that "lo-fi" and "anti-technical" bs common to black metal, so don't be afraid of sh***y brutality. Sweet guitar solo. I recommend watching the music video, the propositional (satirical, most likely) cheesiness of black metal tropes such as evil Satanic men singing in boreal forests and solos so melodic the guitarist literally is set ablaze. "The deer shoot back" is the emblematic line that characterizes the song.

Meteorite Showers is a delicious retro track that features a swing-revival core (sprinkled with various midsections from bossa nova to circus music) that'll probably stick in your mind (it did on mine), followed by a doo- wop one. The doo-wop is state-of-art: rhythm, vocal harmonies, 50s American accent, singing style, upright bass solo, all done terrifically.

The Bounty Hunter is where their Latin jazz excels. Using it as core, there are various different styles structured upon it, all of them sound fantastic when syncretized.

A Very Intense Battle is the lo-fi evil black metal tool in the shed, atmospheric, virulent, and very intense. What Deers May Come is a meditative, atmospheric Balkanic traditional folk music. This is where both the didjeridu (Australian horn) and djembe (African percussion) joins several other instruments to create the resonating ambience.

There is almost eight instruments for every musician and I could identify at least nine genres here. In conclusion, there is a considerable collection of diversity in BUCK FEVER, all played surprisingly well. Not for the faint of heart, lovers of slow tempo, or stillness adorers. Instead, I recommend for anyone who wants to listen to new, different stuff - stuff that morphs into completely different shapes repeatedly, and people who want to get into Avant-prog without hopping into stuff way too weird right away. The album is available on YouTube for anyone who wants to do test-drive.

Out of all the bands to find Mr Bungle as the primary influence in their genre skipping schizoid madness to making music, perhaps none was more successful in its endeavors than the Santa Cruz, CA based ESTRADASPHERE and after the band's debut "It's Understood," the band returned the very next year to unleash its second electric cauldron of every genre and the kitchen sink in the form of BUCK FEVER. And if the comparisons to Bungle and its offspring project Secret Chiefs 3 weren't already apparent then the production help of Trey Spruance on this sophomore album will only cement the connection but after all several members had already played with Spruance so the family reunion continues.

The debut album already displayed a knack for unbridled ferocity in genre skipping, fusion blending and the drop of the hat schizoid shifts from relaxing massage music to death metal and everywhere in between. BUCK FEVER continues all of this and takes it all even further by covering several styles of jazz, klezmer, surf rock, doo-wop, chiptune video game music, disco, funk, avant-prog and three styles of metal: black, death and grindcore. The entire album is the genre purists nightmare come true and the most representative successor of the Bungle legacy after that band's retirement in 2000. The band who plays on BUCK FEVER consists of only five musicians but between them they cover a whopping 40 plus instruments which gives this album a rather busy sound.

It all starts off with a title track that that alone covers many ground but remains in a 60s sort of surf rock mode with Bungle's "California" album as a prime source of inspiration with catchy booty shaking dance grooves, kitschy 60s pop charm and a horn section that's on fire during the uptempo swings. The tracks vary considerably as "The Dapper Bandits" jumps into Balkan gypsy jazz number but finds itself wending and winding through jittery progressive time signature shifts and even a polka section. The next track is one of my favorites, the atmospheric black metal "The Silent Elk of Yesterday," with haunting female vocals and arpeggiated psychedelic guitars leading in the melodic blasts of heavy guitar riffs. It's more like a mix of black, alternative and classic 80s metal with sizzling solos and eerie ambience.

After the black metal bombast, "Crag Lake" is a cute little 8-bit chiptune video game track that reminds me of Frogger as the little froggie hopped up the lily pads to get to the other side. "Meteor Showers" jumps back into a very experimental Balkan gypsy jazz / polka track but also mixes in some metal, chiptune and ska but ends as a 60s Baroque pop track in the vein of the Beach Boys complete with excellent harmonies by many of the members along with an authentic sax solo. These guys can really pull it all off effortlessly. "The Bounty Hunter" is another jazzy Balkan folk track, "Super Buck ii" is a lounge jazz cover of the Super Mario Bros 2 video game theme and a damn good cover as well! "Millennium Child" reminds me of the Mike Patton ballads on the Bungle "California" album except Dave Murray dishes out blastbeats most of the duration.

"Trampoline Klan" is yet another chiptune track. "Burnt Corpse" is a very short burst of brutal death metal immediately followed by another cheery 30s jazz styled number in "Rise N Shine." "Bride of the Buck" has a spoken narration over new age keyboards and my vote for the worst track on the album. "A Very Intense Battle" is the longest track on the album at 8:40 and starts off with a heavy muddled mix of keyboards, guitars, bass and drums and some spoken narrative in the background. It evolves into a grindcore / death metal hybrid with atmospheric keyboards and progressive time signatures zigzagging every now and again. As the title suggests, it is indeed very intense. "Green Hill" is another chiptune track and at this point one too many. In fact by the time i get to this part of the album it feels too long as neither the disco fueled gypsy jazz number "Feed Your Mama's Meter" nor the finale "What Deers May Come" with a silly skit about the theme seem like filler.

Overall ESTRADASPHERE cranked out an excellent followup as they navigated through the genre list like pros but the repetition of certain ideas ruin the surprise factor and the length of the album should've been trimmed to around 45 minutes and this would've been a much more effective experience but for the most part this is quite the enjoyable slice of Bungle fever taken into the next century and proves that this band has all the chops and sense of humor to pull it off however due to the album's inconsistency in no way dethrones the Bunglers from their perch as quirkiest prog artist since Zappa. This will surely not appeal to everyone since you have to be able to hang with the myriad genres that are juggled but for those of us who love left field twists and turns to who knows where then you can't go wrong with ESTRADASPHERE and BUCK FEVER is a worthy successor to the eclectic wild ride of the debut.

You ever play those theoretical games? You know, if you were stuck on an island and had only one thing to eat, or could have one thing to pass the time with, or if you could only have 4 albums to listen to, what would those things be?

As a fan of so much music and so many genres, picking a Mount Rushmore of prog albums, let alone albums of any genre, is a daunting task, yet if I had to take 4 for a Mount Rushmore, give me Dream Theater's "Octivarium", Pink Floyd's "Animals", Mars Volta's "Frances the Mute" and this album.

Yes, I'm excluding a ton of great records (I'd be smuggling "Court of the Crimson King" onto the boat before they dropped me off), but I chose these four simply for the variety. I get classic psychedelic perfection from "Animals", modern prog metal done right with "Octivarium", technical schizophrenia with a latin twist with "Frances the Mute".

And for every other genre under the sun rolled into a cartoonish atom bomb-like package that puts a smile on my face every time, give me Estradasphere's Buck Fever".

The first album from this outfit is enough to turn heads, what with their usage of middle eastern and eastern European motifs, along with jazz, death metal and video game sounds, but it was more of a rough draft than a final essay, if you know what I mean. There's definitely room for improvement, improvement which pulls through in spades on this record. This record, unlike "It's Understood" is built around a theme of, you guessed it, hunting. There is a story being told here, somewhere, but honestly it's not necessary. The instrumental performance alone carries this entire record, and the absolute enormity of different textures, sounds and genres rolled together here is mind boggling, not just the amount of different sounds, but the way each sound coalesces together in a neatly rolled package.

"Buck Fever" begins with a sort homage to a classic 50s-60s pop ballad before it jumps into the kind of haunted rockabilly surf rock you'd hear in an Addams Family cartoon or something Halloween related. Jason Schimmel has such a great guitar tone that leaves an impression very few guitarists can do, and with John Whooley wailing away on that sax of his, it's such a unique song with a dramatic soundtrack orchestra blitzing away behind the band. With a dramatic introduction like that, you know you've popped the top on something special here.

"The Dapper Bandits" continues this sort of classic movie soundtrack-inspired feel with a twisted waltz of sorts before the music breaks out into their trademark middle eastern inspired dance moves. There's considerably less jazz influenced motifs here, but you do get some funky interchangeable passages along with the first semblances of what I call the "detective" sound (you know, when the guitar makes that 'wakka-diga wakka-diga' sound when the detective walks into the room and takes his shades off in dramatic fashion while staring seriously at the camera during the TV promo? Nope, just me? Ok then...) before their eerie death metal drone fades the song out into nothing, foreshadowing the equally dark and heavy "Silent Elk of Yesterday", echoing bands like Enslaved and Insomnium. And, as Estradasphere tradition, after some dark and morbid sounding tunes, they throw in a 45 second homage to Super Mario Bros. on "Crag Lake" to put that smile back on your face.

"Meteorite Showers" is where things get wild and wacky. Within the first minute alone you get a groovy pop rock beat underneath a Russian dance sounding motif, a brief cartoon montage, a 70's dance spoof and crunching death metal riffs. This is just an ever changing kaleidoscope of genres, textures sounds and rhythms. It transitions to a soft ballad to polka to dramatic soundtrack rock to a Southside Johnny meets bubblegum pop bit. A brief silence allows a montage of sounds to build up before the introductory dance theme returns before the band waltz to a soft conclusion.

"The Bounty Hunter" just exudes cool. That jazzy intro guitar, some dramatic outbursts and some funky beats make this a really cool tune before the middle eastern and eastern european dances come in. Some brief heavy chords make their appearance before the tune turns decidedly latin. After some drum heavy grooves, the song once again returns to its opening theme (a recurring format throughout this album) before the band overlays death metal chords overtop before finishing with a funky disco flourish! Whew.

Those two tracks were a bit overwhelming, but don't worry, because "Super Buck II" is here to save the day! In essence, it's basically a swing cover of the Super Mario Bros. theme (another recurring feature on Estradasphere albums), and a damn good cover at that, featuring a funky upright bass solo.

Another hefty track follows in "Millennium Child", a song that begins with a wonderful vocal feature before a furious double bass drum assault joins in underneath. Two minutes in, a funky metal riff powers through trading off with a samba esque rhythm led by Whooley's sax. Also featured is a arena rock esque spoof, that detective guitar sound again, a killer Schimmel guitar solo, more Whooley amazingness and a brief spoof of a hair metal riff that I can't remember that's going to drive me nuts now, dammit.

Up next is a sequence of tracks that never fails to amaze me every time. "Trampoline Klan" is another video game inspired chip tune piece that fills about a minute of time before the obligatory "hunting skit" returns (as it does at the end of most tracks throughout this album) which then transitions into 14 seconds of pure and actual grindcore in "Burnt Corpse" (no, I'm not joking, it's about as close to grindcore as you can get) before it goes straight into the jazzy "Rise n' Shine" that then transitions into a funky tropical jazz pattern that closes out the sequence with some distortion added to the guitars before the band loops back to the opening theme. How bands do you know that transition from chiptune to grindcore to jazz in 4 minutes?

"Bride of the Buck" is a brief cartoony skit talking about the deer that's being hunted (at least I think that's what's happening, I'm not paying attention at this point), before "A Very Intense Battle" starts with very intense distorted chords and screeching strings. This is without a doubt the heaviest track Estradasphere made (I assume at this point in the story [if there really is one] is a massive bloody battle between the evil hunter Redcoats and the Arnold Bucksenegger of the Dearcoat tribe, defending his land from the evil space invaders. Sorry, I think I'm rambling here). Midway, a challenger appears! Tribal elements from Native American cultures, as well as dramatic symphonic elements and just a lot of noise.

Oh, and because we heard a dark, morbid track, the obligatory video game song follows, only this time "Green Hill" spoofs the Sonic series as opposed to the traditional Super Mario Bros (kudos to the pause sound effect as the gamer stops to eat some chips, as well as the game freezing and the player removing the cartridge to blow the dust from it. The inner gamer in me approves).

"Feed Your Mama's Meter" takes the standard Estradasphere recipe of funky rhythms with eastern elements and throws a techno remix overtop it all along with some disco elements while "What Deers May Come" is like an atmospheric outro that you'd hear in a dramatic video game campaign.

Whew, that's a lot of typing, because there's a lot to type about. That's how you can tell an album is good, when there's so much to talk about. When an album is average or mediocre, you're straining to find something interesting to talk about. There's just so much in this album that each listen introduces something new that you probably missed last time. Of course, the biggest thing is just the fluidity of which this band transitions from genre to genre to musical element after musical element, not to mention the fact that these songs feel like songs now and not like ditties they threw together and then ruined by screaming incessantly and throwing noise together for no reason (see "D(b) Hell" off "It's Understood").

Above all, it's listenable. It's so groundbreaking in terms of the genres and instruments implemented that not only is the musicality so mind blowing and awe inspiring, but it's polished enough that it makes you go back and listen to it again and again, because there's simply nothing else like it in the world, and there never will be. A gem of a gem if there ever was one.