Review by Daniel for Primus - Pork Soda (1993)
Wacky Californian trio Primus are an act that I’ve been aware of since the release of their debut album “Frizzle Fry” way back in 1990 but never really gave the time to genuinely understand & appreciate until relatively recently. I guess I just always assumed that they wouldn’t be something that would interest me but that hasn’t ended up being the case with both “Frizzle Fry” & Primus’ 1991 sophomore album “Sailing the Seas of Cheese” leaving me thoroughly impressed with their unique & quirky take on rock music. I’d always intended to close out my exploration of Primus’ classic trio of releases with 1993’s “Pork Soda” third album but somehow that’s taken a lot more time than I was expecting & I’ve only just closed out that endeavour this week. It’s proven to be a worthwhile exercise too, although I’d suggest that “Pork Soda” was perhaps not quite as satisfying as its two older siblings.
Despite its inherent weirdisms, there’s no doubt that “Pork Soda” is an attractive record. The cover art is humorous & never fails to leave a smile on my face while the production jobs is bright & full, everything you could want for a record like this one that relies so heavily on space & timbre. The musicianship on display here is excellent too, particularly the sublime bass guitar work of front man Les Claypool who was already a bass enigma at this point in his career. The things he can do with his instrument while handling the vocal duties at the same time is nothing short of mind-blowing but his skills are always used creatively & artistically which leads me to believe that Les has a great understanding of the art of song-writing & composition. Former Possessed guitarist Larry Lalonde is the perfect foil for Les, more often than not spewing forth layers of artsy noise that takes the form of controlled chaos. Drummer Tim “Herb” Alexander tends to aim to tie everything together & stays generally well within himself which is what’s required when you’re looking to anchor two visionaries like Claypool & Lalonde.
As with Primus’ first two albums, I have to seriously question people’s ability to hear of they think this record has even the most remote link to metal. There’s hardly a second of the entire 57-minute run time that sees me reaching for metal descriptors with no semblance of a metal tool coming within miles of “Pok Soda”. What we receive here is once again a highly experimental rock record like “Frizzle Fry” & “Sailing the Seas of Cheese’ but this time it’s less funky & much more psychedelic, so much so that I’ve decided that the best way to describe it is experimental/psychedelic rock. There’s a generous fifteen tracks included here so you can expect a few detours here & there but this is generally a pretty druggy & cerebral record & I kinda dig that approach too.
The tracklisting kicks off in very fine style indeed with the first four proper songs all being particularly solid. The quality levels start to jump around a little bit from there but there are also a few stronger inclusions later in the piece too. The decision to include a number of short interludes hasn’t exactly set the house on fire as I found a few of them to be pretty silly but I think that was kinda the point really as I can’t deny that they do help Primus take you to the twisted, sweaty, meth-ridden, red-neck countryside they were obviously aspiring to. Tracks like “Pork Chop’s Little Ditty” & “Hail Santa” just don’t add anything from a purely musical point of view though. My favourite pieces tend to be some of the heavier groove-led ones like “My Name Is Mud”, “DMV” & my personal fave “Hamburger Train” which is essentially an eight minute jazz fusion jam session that would have worked brilliantly as a point of collaboration with my beloved Miles Davis if he was still alive today.
While “Pork Soda” certainly has its strengths, I can’t help but feel that it’s a step down from the first two albums, mainly due its reduced consistency. Given its lengthy run time, I feel that Primus could have culled a few tracks & benefitted the holistic album in the process. As it is though, “Pork Soda” is still an intriguing listen. It’s perhaps not as essential as its predecessors were though.
For fans of Nuclear Rabbit, Mr. Bungle & Flagman.