July 27, 2001

Fantomas : The Director's Cut

Lunacy from ex-Faith No More frontman

8 / 10 For Mike Patton, it's all about walking the knife edge; dedicating oneself to doing the last thing people expect of you. When the scatological excesses of Faith No More became a well-worn cliché, Patton split the band. Post-FNM vehicle Fantomas steers his sonic vision into schizophrenic and supremely fucked-up territories.

The second LP from the Fantomas quartet (Patton, Melvins' Buzz Osbourne, ex-Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo and Mr Bungle's Trevor Dunn) comprises 16 reinterpreted scores from movies like Rosemary's Baby, The Omen and so forth. God knows how the various composers reacted to this gleeful butchering. But it takes genius to realise that Nino Rota's Godfather score could be immeasurably improved by a man barking "GODFATHER! GODFATHER! WOO-HA!" over
the top.

If it all sounds wearyingly self-indulgent on paper, you have to hear things like the Cape Fear theme, a sliced-up outpouring of metallic doom, to believe extravagance could sound so good. While this is miles away from the mainstream, some of the finest moments here Henry Mancini's 'Charade' for one recall FNM's glorious pomp. Patton croons devilishly while skyscrapers collapse behind him, and the result is pure rock operatics. Muse? My arse!

Noel Gardner

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