Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Mike Patton's kept himself away from the pop charts since, oh, Faith No More's Commodores cover or so, but all along -- through all the Bungle/Fantomas/Tomahawk metalurgy, solo-voice noise, and occasional guest spots -- he's teased us with promises of a mass-market pop album. It was beginning to look like it'd be his Chinese Democracy, but we finally got an official Peeping Tom press release this morning from the Nasties, and . . . well . . . it's pretty much everything you'd expect from the world's reigning avant-garde heavy metal soul singer. Due May 30 on Ipecac, it includes collaborations with Kool Keith, Norah Jones,  Massive Attack, Bebel Gilberto, and a bunch of Patton's usual suspects. Not having heard a note of it, it's probably too soon to start hyping it as an American response to Gorillaz, although that would be our elevator pitch if were were hyping Rolling Stone on it or something. From the press release:

In keeping with the landmark 1960 psychological horror film that inspired its name, PEEPING TOM had its genesis a modus operandi devoid of physical intimacy. Patton would write songs with a wishlist of theoretical collaborators in mind, then hope for a reply in the form of a finished track. "It's an exotic way of working for someone accustomed to a band environment," Patton says. "It was charming, really. None of the usual Animal House stuff. Instead of swapping spit and underwear, we were swapping files."

Lack of face-to-face interaction did not keep long-distance collaborators from turning in exceptional performances: Norah Jones' lascivious "Sucker," Kool Keith's "Getaway" and Massive Attack's "Kill The DJ" are intense and passionate as anything a live band environment could have produced-despite the fact that Patton has still never met Jones or Keith. "Plenty of people on the record are still complete strangers to me," he says.

The initial PEEPING TOM offering also includes contributions from Amon Tobin, Bebel Gilberto, DubTrio, and several of Patton's Bay Area running buddies, such as Dan "the Automator" Nakamura (who tag teams with Rahzel on "Mojo"), and Jel, Odd Nosdam and Dose One of hip hop collective anticon. The end result is an utterly unique multi-genre/multi-artist departure from Patton's more recent noisy output-one that would ultimately have to be classified as a pop record… a Mike Patton pop record, but a pop record nonetheless.

"I don't listen to the radio, but if I did, this is what I'd want it to sound like. This is my version of pop music. In way, this is an exercise for me: taking all these things I've learned over the years and putting them into a pop format. I've worked with many people who have said to me, 'oh you have a pop record in you, eventually you'll find it,' and I always laughed at them. I guess I owe them an apology."

2/21/2006 11:09:41 AM by On the Download | Comments [1] |