Sleepytime Gorilla Museum - Grand Opening And Closing
Equilibre Music - EM009 - 2006
By Philip Whitehouse
If you missed out on this first time round, then this reissue of
Sleepytime Gorilla Museum's debut album (complete with two previously unheard bonus tracks and a live rendition of the teeth-rattlingly heavy
'Powerless') provides you with the perfect excuse to rectify the mistake and get on board with one of the modern music scene's most genuinely original and impressive bands.
Mixing avant-garde, dadaist prog, bowel-loosening bass and some crushingly heavy riffs with homemade percussive instruments and an incomparably unhinged atmosphere,
Grand Opening And Closing is a constantly evolving and challenging listen from start to finish - from the lurching, devastating stomp of opener
'Sleep Is Wrong' to the Japanese koto-esque lull of closer
'Sunflower' (which is followed by the bonus tracks), there's rarely a moment on this dizzyingly schizophrenic album that isn't head-shakingly off-kilter, but yet still impressive. Imagine a jam session between
Thinking Plague,
Mr Bungle and
King Crimson - that's the level of lunacy we're talking about here.
Okay, so it may not exactly be for everyone - the convuluted song structures may put off some, and the prevalent weirdness throughout may strike some as contrivance - a 'wacky for wacky's sake' device. But then, listen to the amazingly heavy mid-section of
'1997'. Or the mix of twisted carnival showtunes, dark soundscapes and grinding, subsonic bass that makes up
'The Stain'. Or
'Ambugaton''s crescendo of cascading melodies. In fact, just listen to the album - it's a fair bet you won't have heard anything like it previously.
8.5/10
UM's Review Rating Scale
Sleepytime Gorilla Museum's Official Website
Equilibre Music's Official Website
