Reviews list for Mr. Bungle - Mr. Bungle (1991)

Mr. Bungle

Mr. Bungle are known as one of the most weirdly diverse bands around. The tracks all contain a mix of different genres, each track different from each other. Bands like Incubus would try that experimentation in the mid-1990s before sticking firmly to a different style. The talented skill of Mr. Bungle is in great display here!

Their 1991 self-titled debut was certainly unexpected at a time when grunge killed the glam star. No one before Mr. Bungle had ever dared to go full-on experimental, except John Zorn with his band Naked City. Zorn would also perform saxophone on one of the tracks in this album. But there's more than just jazzy saxophone. Here we have an avant-garde metal exploration through noise, funk, thrash, and circus music. Just far how can they go to reach the experimentation limit?

The spooky opener "Travolta" was named after John Travolta, but due to trademark conflicts, the song name was later changed to "Quote Unquote". It's truly the soundtrack to a spooky Halloween night at a carnival, though not as disturbing as its banned music video that shows clowns hanging on meat hooks. "Slowly Growing Deaf" is the best example of the band's metal, while exploring the carnival's house of mirrors. Brass-fueled "Squeeze Me Macaroni" is also amazing. That's where the album sounds best when blending lightness with spookiness. Chords are played around in "Carousel", which is actually slightly more normal. You're having fun in the funfair and riding the carousel, but it's too much to take for your motion sickness, and you throw up right in front of all the clowns that laugh at you.

"Egg" is one of two 10-minute epics in this album, this one having some playing fun before a bit of chaos that then leads to a few-minute segue to the next track. "Stubb (A Dub)" is a 7-minute track, but that includes a two-minute outro of audio samples for a nice atmosphere. Still if you want to listen to this track on its own, you might wanna just listen to the 5 minutes of actual music. "My A** is on Fire" is another more normal song, though the title is not one you would find in every album. I like the drums here, but I'm not too sure the Blue Velvet samples click.

"The Girls of Porn" has some groovy bass. "Love is a Fist" is about spouse abuse. The vocals and keyboards shine the most in "Dead Goon", the closing second 10-minute epic. Now this story might not be for the easily weirded out... An asphixiophile clown finds desire in choking himself to escape his own misery. He wasn't planning on committing suicide, but he did in a hanging accident. For a song with such a dark theme, the chorus has such a clean pop vibe.

All in all, Mr. Bungle's debut is the kind of album that someone who was a rebellious troublemaking high school kid can hear and be like, "Wow, that is musically like what I was as a kid." If the human equivalent to this album's music is around, I would hang out for some time with this cool guy whose name is... Mr. Bungle!

Favorites: "Slowly Growing Deaf", "Squeeze Me Macaroni", "Egg", "Stubb (A Dub)", "Dead Goon"

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Shadowdoom9 (Andi) Shadowdoom9 (Andi) / February 27, 2024 01:12 AM
Mr. Bungle

While I was the source for Ben picking up so many of the extreme metal game-changers that would stay with us for most of our lives, he would also open my eyes to exciting new bands at times too with bizarre Californian outfit Mr. Bungle being one of the more significant of them. Faith No More was a REALLY big band for Ben & his best mate Matt during the early 1990's with Mike Patton becoming nothing short of an obsession for Matt so I think it might have been him that initially brought Mr. Bungle's self-titled debut album to our attention before Ben purchased the CD. While I also loved me some Faith No More, Mr. Bungle sounded like none of my business on paper. I mean it's quirky, it's funky & it's consciously weird, none of which are characteristics I would usually be open to in my metal. But that's the true genius in this artist really i.e. the ability to do something so unusual but still achieve timeless hooks & eternal laughs that manage to immediately recall a time in my life with an effortless ease that few acts can achieve. It's been a while since I've revisited "Mr. Bungle" though & I really didn't have any idea how I might end up rating it in the modern day so it was with much anticipation that I pressed play on my long drive into work this week. What I found was that my passion for Mr. Bungle's freakish circus sideshow took very little time to rekindle too.

"Mr. Bungle" is very much a mishmash of disparate genres & ideas that somehow manages to sound cohesive & vital. Other websites will tell you that it's a blend of experimental rock, avant-garde metal & funk metal but I don't think that's quite right. I mean, there's very little actual rock on this album so calling it experimental rock is a little misleading in my opinion. There's certainly a lot more metal than there is rock here but even metal is just one of many tools that are used within a wider range of sounds & styles that include funk, ska, experimental, psychedelia, deep jazz, field recordings, circus-themed music & an array of other subgenres. Still... I think there's enough metal on offer to warrant the avant-garde metal tag given that metal provides somewhat of a platform for which to present the other quirkier sounds. Funk metal is a little bit more of a stretch in my opinion though as the funk & the metal rarely appear together & there's a lot more to "Mr. Bungle" than just funk. Regardless of these concerns, it's fair to say that "Mr. Bungle" sounds like nothing you've ever heard before so traditional tags are ineffective in preparing you for what's in store for you anyway.

The hero of the day is certainly Faith No More/Dead Cross/Fantômas front man Mike Patton as this record provides him with the ultimate showcase for his extraordinarily wide range of psychotic vocal techniques & noises. In fact, I find it entirely captivating to simply follow him through the record & observe just how fucking nuts he can be. Anyone that hasn't heard the extended "No Place Like Home" section on "Egg" or the "Redundant" part of "My Ass Is on Fire" really owe it to themselves to experience it & I challenge you to not let out at least the odd giggle (if not uncontrollable laughter) which is really saying something all these years later. Mr. Bungle are a seriously talents group of musicians too though & the way they manage to bring all of the whacked-out insanity together as a cohesive whole is really quite something. I tend to love the opposite extremes the most with the deeper psychedelic moments & the heavier metallic sections giving me the most joy but there's not a weak track to be found amongst the ten on offer with opener "Quote Unquote" & the previously mentioned "My Ass Is on Fire" both playing pivotal roles in my youth. Fantômas bassist Trevor Dunn's contribution is worth mentioning as he shows himself to possess some pretty impressive chops with some of the funky bass lines he manages to pull off. The way that Faith No More/Asva/Faxed Head guitarist Trey Spruance manages to swap from the funkiest of clean ska or funk riff to the heaviest of metal dirge is quite an eye opener too.

"Mr. Bungle" is certainly not the sort of thing that you'll find me listening to all that often as I tend to take my metal music pretty seriously at times but it's refreshing to take a musical u-turn like this every now & then, particularly when it summons up so many memories of Ben & I rolling on his bedroom floor laughing until tears streamed down our faces. Mr. Bungle serve a very clear purpose in reminding me that I don't have to be quite so intense all the time &, for that reason alone, I think everyone should experience their debut at some point in their lives, particularly where weed is involved. Fans of the more avant-garde end of metal will almost inevitably see the genius in this record while those with a strong penchant for artists like Fantômas, Buckethead & Diablo Swing Orchestra may just rank it amongst their more elite releases of the time.

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Daniel Daniel / February 23, 2024 06:46 PM
Mr. Bungle

Basically a worse and more disgusting version of Primus. They get props in that they sounded totally unique, perhaps even to this day. Even for Avant-Garde metal, this is really weird stuff. Not that this came out of nowhere – the band had been putting together demos and EPs of Avant-Garde Funk Metal for a few years, making them unequivocally pioneers of this style of music.

The thing about this album is that every aspect of it – from the vocals, to the lyrics and humor, to the disjointed, eclectic songwriting and sound – are all acquired tastes. Very strong flavors that you either love or hate. For fans of the bizarre and “out there,” this is quite frankly a treasure trove of unique ideas and execution. For me, it’s just a lot of things that I don’t enjoy meshed together into a long, messy record.

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SilentScream213 SilentScream213 / June 18, 2021 04:14 AM
Mr. Bungle

An excellent mix of genre-mashing Metal/ Jazz/ ??? / Circus Themed nonsense! Notable songs from this release;

Quote Unquote - The unmistakable king song of the release, its what most people think of when you mention Mr Bungle. This spooky circus themed song about a trans-gendered John Travolta, f**king himself as he f**ks the world!... wat!

Carousel - Strangely my personal favorite song of the record. I'm a big fan of the amount of genres squished into one song, that and its pretty amazing!

My Ass is on fire - Pretty catchy, you can tell the guys are having heaps of fun with this one!   

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Michael Michael / January 08, 2019 08:33 AM