Review Summary: Mr. Bungle's last demo proves itself essential to any Mike Patton fan's collection.
A lot of people have heard of Mr. Bungle. Many people have only heard what is presented on their three full length albums. Many people don't even know that they did anything before that. Mr. Bungle themselves don't consider their first four releases "official releases." They are more like Cheap demo tapes. But OU818, their last demo tape, went from Cheap demo, to what I would consider to be a great EP. It's really a shame they don't consider this an EP or reissue it, because it really is a great album.
The album starts off with an intro. I love this introduction because it's really funny. It's just the members of the band rambling on and on over a synth beat. It's really an awesome little song, great intro to the album. Up next is a familiar song,
Squeeze Me Macaroni. I prefer this version to the version off of the self titled album. This is the version I heard first. This version does not have a lot of random sounds effects and it does not have that annoying cowbell that is used on the later version. Also Mike seems to be singing a hell of a lot faster here, and goes through a whole verse in 12 seconds. The lyrics are great, they are all about food products and somehow tying sex into all of them. It's a awesome song.
Another familiar song is next
Slowly Growing Deaf is one of my favorites off of their self titled album. When I go back and listen to this version, it sounds really weird. One thing I always notice now it that the guitar takes a smaller part of the song here, and is less distorted. The keyboards here are what take front and center, with the guitar used to back it up. I love both versions of this song, each for different reasons, but I think I like the self titled version better because it has more power to it. Mike also sings the introduction different, almost like an opera, less quiet like on self titled. Awesome to hear this song presented so differently.
Next up is
The Girls Of Porn, which is another song off of self titled. It starts out with a sound sample of a man and a woman talking, then you are thrust into that little spoken word intro from Patton and then it sounds almost exactly like the version I am now more familiar of. The vocals sounds very different here though, because there is no echo used on them. I personally think the drums sounds better on this version, but I'm not exactly sure why. Good song, but gets old after a while.
Love Is A Fist is the last familiar song here. I like this version much more than the other version. It sounds more complete. The bass is great in this song, but is not heard well enough. Trey is a very good bass player, and I think they should put him higher in the mix here. This is my least favorite song on self titled, but I love it here. The saxophones don't do any of those really high pitched squeals over and over here. There no samples here either. Definitely a highlight.
Mr. Nice Guy is the one song on here that isn't on s/t. It opens up with who I think is Mike talking like a guy who just got dumped and it sounds really funny. The bass here is turned up!!! It sounds great. Trey was really showing off here, even though the bass line isn't too complex, it sounds exactly what a great funk bass line should sound like. I love hearing this song, because I don't listen to it much on purpose, do that it can always sound fresh when I've been listening to too much Mr. Bungle, I can listen to this song. It's a really fun song, that sounds almost middle eastern a bit to me, but nothing like Ars Moriendi. This is the highlight of the album for me, because it doesn't appear on s/t, so i haven't heard it one thousand times.
Track by Track
1. Intro 5/5
2. Squeeze Me Macaroni 5/5
3. Slowly Growing Deaf 4.5/5
4. The Girls Of Porn 4/5
5. Love Is A Fist 5/5
6. Mr. Nice Guy 5/5
Pros
Different Versions of great songs
Shows great song writing skills
Better recording quality than their last demos.
It's Mr. Bungle for crying out loud!!!
Cons
Where the distortion???
Some of it sounds weird, because they are older versions of songs.
Can't buy it on a CD or anything.
It needs to be longer.
Overall I think this album is definitely worth the download. You can't find the actually cassette anywhere except eBay for probably hundreds of dollars.
4.5/5
