REVIEW: Sausage, Riddles are Abound Tonight (Interscope)
- Martin Bate
Sausage sees Les Claypool re-united with the other two original members of Primus. That this project sounds quite a lot like Primus should therefore not come as a *great* surprise. (Primus' Toys Go Winding Down even appears here in its original form)
For the unitiated, the Primus (and Sausage) sound is a mixture of jazz, funk, metal, blues, bad drugs, children's nightmares, discordant nursery rhymes, melancholy musings, and manic babblings. Tom Waits and The Residents are heroes and as close as you'll get to reference points.
Todd Huth (guitar and Claypool's friend and fishing companion) and Jay Lane (drums) are excellent musicians - easily comparable with their opposite numbers in Primus - and Claypool's acrobatic bass and cartoon nasal whine are firmly in effect.
So what makes Sausage different from Primus, apart from the personnel ? Well, they *do* have a slightly different sound, although putting my finger on what makes them *not* Primus is not simple (especially when they *were* Primus, if you see what I mean).
The overall sound is a little warmer and more rounded than Primus' minimal, angular approach. The songs tend to be more gently dischordant than jarring, and the band have a looser, less structured feel than Primus.
The material on offer is excellent (after a few listens) and the songs are as brash, subtle and intelligent as usual, although the album pales a bit towards the end with 2 songs - 'Girls for Single Men' and 'Caution Should Be Used...' - sounding like good *ideas* rather than good *songs* and being a little over-indulgent and over-long.
But on the whole, for those that like Primus its an obvious buy. For the unitiated, maybe the live "Suck on This", or "Sailing the Seas of Cheese" is the one you want.
