ICP must be making good on their promise, “I can breath the magic mist / And exhale your every wish,” because Haord’s Buncha compilation is more fun than a barrel of monkey men, and my wish was for more fun. It is chock full of desperate, skipped-a-meal, piss-and-vinegar fun. It is a simulacrum of Danny Elfman as a pauper: still struggling to break in, unrecognized; still pumping out colorful numbers, fatigued; still smiling like the devil at the camera, malnourished. His smile’s edges rise into the onset of dementia, as he incants, “Leave your body and soul at the door.”
The purest example of Buncha’s demented and desperate-for-more fun is “Buzzard” by TUMBLEWEAVE. “Buzzard” is buckled in the front seat of the Haord curated wild ride that hardly goes off-track. It is the compilation’s mission statement of mania. It broadcasts spinning color wheels, vocal warps, and impeccably arranged trick sounds. It is the forecast of many amusements to come: “Monkey Man,” “ZOP PLINKO,” “Let Me Tell You A Secret,” “Her Herd,” and other tracks that swirl like racing thoughts, triggering vertigo, leading the formless to the circus. In awe, jaws drop, like Avery’s Wolf, and mouths open, like clowns in a balloon race.
• Haord Records: http://haord.bandcamp.com
More about: Various Artists
