Friday, September 29, 2017

The Only Slightly More Colorful Three - A Review of PRIMUS' New Album "The Desaturating Seven"

"The Desaturating Seven" marks the 9th studio album in a slowly expanding Primus discography, and yet another since 1997's "Brown Album" that doesn't quite meet the mark. 

Though this album is the first studio effort in 14 years to feature celebrated "pseudo-original" drummer Tim "Herb" Alexander (he amicably left Primus after the release of "Tales from the Punchbowl", but returned briefly to record "The Animals Should Not Try To Act Like People" EP in 2003), it still falls only slightly less short of being anything resembling a full return to form for this once amazingly unique ensemble.  

"The Desaturating Seven" while toted as an album of new material, is actually a musical  re-interpretation of an obscure children's book called "The Rainbow Goblins" by Italian author Ul De Rico.  It's an interesting concept, and surely an intriguing children's story, but Primus using it as fodder for a concept album fails to offer any cohesive linear narrative for anyone unfamiliar with the book itself. Added to which, the band's previously only tepidly received re-interpretation of "Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory", on their 2014 effort "Primus & The Chocolate Factory", should have been an indicator to them that their fans are really not all that interested in this kind of child's play. 

Though renowned for being an eccentric and left-field band, which consistently steered away from the angst ridden "grunge" sound of their 90's era peers, Primus fans by and large still come to expect a little more maturity - even from this decidedly silly, quirky and character-story driven group. So while the concept of this album is singular, and undeniably curious, it ultimately presents itself as Primus's further de-evolution into self-decay and detachment from their core audience. "The Desaturating Seven" is a project that would have been much better suited to a band like The Residents, who have made a long standing career of cultivating obscure literature like this, and would never be expected to produce anything other - especially not something that would be commercially digestible on a mainstream level. Credit to Les Claypool and company for trying in this realm, but really they've established themselves as a different kind of band than that, so to put out something like this will undoubtedly struggle to garner any real appreciation. 

On the plus side, however, we see Tim Alexander returning to the fold, and his presence has a clear influence on Primus's compositions as a whole.  While his percussion is not nearly as as poly-rhythmic or expansive as before, it still seems credit is due to him for encouraging the removal of Claypoool's previously severely overused vocal distortion, and the totally irksome wah-effect on his bass guitar - both of which were incorporated into Primus songs after Alexander's departure from the band in 1996.  For the most part, Les Claypool's bass lines here are almost completely void of any additional effects, and longtime guitarist Larry LaLonde begins to once again offer some more dimensional instrumentation than the reggae-style bursts he's been resigned to since "The Brown Album".  The spacious sonic resonance we enjoyed on "Sailing The Seas of Cheese" and "Pork Soda" are missing from this very channeled and entirely too compressed and suffocating sounding release, however - which is a shame, because on the near closing track "The Storm", the opportunity was there for this album to have a very brief moment of prodigiousness. 

All said, "The Desaturating Seven", while a wholly disappointing effort, still displays a very small step back in the direction of that classic and famed Primus sound.  Though the album's engineering and production is stuffy and claustrophobic, long time fans will faintly hear, and begin to remember, just how much potential Primus still has as a trio of amazingly talented musicians.  This album lacks flare, but the color combination is there.