In the October of last year, I was introduced to Mr Phylzzz, a two-piece band signed to the legendary Amphetmine Reptile label and dedicated to subverting expectations. Their album, Cancel Culture Club, was a whole lot of fun and, with its great, hand-cut artwork and brilliantly deranged songs (always underpinned by expert musicianship, although the band would probably shy away from the compliment), made it into our albums of the year list. Now back with a new effort, Fat Chance, the band are once again touring the US underground in search of new sounds, unleashing a vibrant, seven-track album that builds on the brilliance of Cancel Culture Club and which, for all its skewed sensibilities, once again proves surprisingly catchy.
The album opens with the insane, helium-vocal of Pontiac Grand – Am, a stabbing pop-rock-noise piece that sounds like Mike Patton fronting Primus by way of Dillinger Escape Plan. It’s not an easy track, but then when did you ever expect easy from the Phlyzzz guys, and it’s a whole lot of fun. As such, when the band throw a curve ball in the form of Dirty Hands, the verse for which sounds like its rooted in alt rock, it takes a moment to adjust, by which point the band have already reset their parameters and returned to shuddering noise riffs and atypical vocals. It’s a beast of a track, delivered with typical style and, once again, we find ourselves drawn back to the startlingly innovative mid-90s, when bands like Butthole Surfers, Fugazi and Alice Donut roamed the fringes of the underground, steadfastly refusing to adhere to any trend that threatened to raise its head above the parapet. Next up, Maybe once again nods in the direction of Primus, although the vocal has its own unique character, with the result being the sonic equivalent of those old 3d movies – the image subtly split into red and green layers, the one slightly separated from the other. The first half concludes with the juddering riff fest that is Damp, a monstrous slab of heavy, heavy alt rock with attitude and a surprisingly hooky riff.
Short and sharp, much like its titular subject, Modern Life is a showcase for Danny’s immense talents behind the kit, while Clinton takes hip hop influences and feeds them into a blender with elements of Melvins and butthole surfers. In contrast, Insisting is a grungy beast, with sped-up, Jello Biafra style vocals, suggesting that when Nirvana recorded Beans, at least one band was listening. Of course, even then, the band don’t want to make it too straight forward, and so we get a jazz-noise mid-section that threatens to induce vertigo, just as we think we have a handle on what’s going on. Final track Pick Scrape sets up the band as masters of the literal title, the track itself a melange of backwards-masked drums and, yes, pick scrapes. The fact that it’s seven-minutes long and sounds like an offcut from Pink Floyd’s Saucerful of Secrets album is probably an accident, but amusing nevertheless.
When I think of Mr Phlyzzz, I am reminded of an interview with the Melvins’ Buzz, in which he said he wantedThe Melvins to be for everyone, but that he wouldn’t change what he did to make that the case (I am paraphrasing, but this was the gist). Similarly, Mr Phylzzz make music that is so incredibly catchy and musically competent that it should be for everyone; it’s just that everyone hasn’t caught on yet! I don’t know – objectively I can see why Fat Chance sits far, far away from the mainstream, yet it’s so easy to listen to and so, so much fun, that I could happily sit and listen all day, and I can never quite get my head around why others may not want to… perhaps that’s just me. Anyhow, for anyone who’s ever worshipped at the altar of Melvins, Jesus Lizard, Primus or Butthole Surfers, this is absolutely essential. It’s easy to get cynical, the older you get and the more music you hear, but Mr Phlyzzz give me the same emotions – the same sense of adventure – that I felt when exploring music as a teenager back in the mid-90s, and I bloody love it. 9/10
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