King Buzzo is back with a brand-new offering in the form of Gift Of Sacrifice. Released, as with the Melvins’ work, via Mike Patton’s esteemed Ipecac label, Gift Of Sacrifice sees Buzz teamed up with Trevor Dunn (Mr Bungle, Fantomas) for an album that persistently plucks at the threads of the listener’s expectation. A singular and frequently lysergic body of work, that drifts past the listener in a haze, Gift Of Sacrifice maintains some links to the Melvins (most notably via Buzz’s instantly distinctive vocals), whilst striking out on oft-unexpected tangents over the course of its nine tracks.
Nothing is ever straightforward in King Buzzo’s world, and Mental Vomit, an extraordinarily apt title, raises the curtain on the album with a series of abstract sounds that bear little relationship with what is to follow. Indeed, it’s quite hard to pin down exactly what does follow. Elements of jazz, acoustic balladry and post-rock weirdness all coalesce on the lengthy Housing, Luxury, Energy, the resultant song sounding like latter-day Bowie covering the Butthole Surfers with Nick Cave. Awash in reverb, the track makes use of Buzz’s nuanced tones, ranging from the calmly introspective, to howling preacher-man and the track as a whole is so dynamic that you’re half way through before you even notice the absence of percussion. Dunn’s off-kilter bass is the star of the short, jazz-infused I’m Glad I Could help Out, Buzz’s guitar barely even appearing chorded, but rather employed as a rhythmic instrument. With Patton-esque vocals whispering across the surface of the piece, Buzz wisely keeps it short to maximise the impact of the piece, and it soon slips into the hazy beauty of Delayed Clarity. A subtle, shimmering piece of music that seems to exist in a dimension all of its own, the track’s closest relative would be the early acoustic outings of Beck (think Blackhole), which similarly employed all sorts of slithery reverb to shroud themselves in mystery. In contrast, Junkie Jesus, which only just scrapes the 90-second mark, sounds like an army of cellists warming up whilst watching Psycho. Quite unnerving, it manages to shred the nerves in just over a minute-and-a-half, and it is with some relief that it comes to a swift end.
Fortunately, Junkie Jesus is a disturbed (and disturbing) aberration, rather than the rule for the album’s second half, and Science In Modern America is dark Americana, caught somewhere between Neil Young and Fantomas. With layers of vocals filtered through increasingly alien effects, Science In Modern America, is something of a highlight and Dunn’s bass work is largely sublime. With a rhythm tapped out on the body of the guitar and lighter chords than found elsewhere, Buzz’s journey up the fretboard coincides with a more melodic approach that swoops and soars as the Bird Animal of the title. A fascinating take on how the Beatles probably sounded to the teenaged King Buzzo as he sat, stoned out of his gourd, next to his turntable, it’s a lovely song for all of its quirks, and its lightness of touch is a fitting counterpoint to the darker pieces found elsewhere, even if the track does denigrate into what sounds like a Stylophone-off between Buzz and Trevor. Dunn’s sanguine bass once again sits at the heart of the track on Mock She, a brilliantly bizarre take on the Ace Frehley-sung Shock Me – Buzz once again paying tribute to his beloved Kiss in the only manner that he can. It leaves the incoherent noise of-collage of Acoustic Junkie to close the album, and the effect of the album is such that the listener emerges as if from a trip, disoriented and not quite clear on how much time has actually passed.
With Gift Of Sacrifice King Buzzo remains as gleefully obtuse as ever, proving once and for all that you don’t need coruscating walls of distortion to thoroughly unsettle the unwitting listener. Acoustic does not mean soft, it simply offers Buzz a different tonal palette with which to thoroughly baffle the unwary. Highlights include the unhinged take on Shock Me (Mock She) and the gorgeous Delayed Clarity, whilst the more outré tracks are wisely kept short, thus maximising the effect without sacrificing the overall flow of the album. Not a record for the mainstream, perhaps, but a chilled alternative to the bombast of the Melvins in full flow, Gift Of Sacrifice is a trip well worth taking. 8.5/10
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