If you’ve heard any of Mike Patton’s previous solo work – or any of his work outside of Faith No More, in particular with Mr Bungle, then you’ll already know that off-the-wall, bag-of-frogs derangement is par for the course. His 1996 album ‘Adult Themes for Voice’ tested the listener’s endurance and sounded like a tape recorder had been left running in the corridor of asylum.
‘Laborintus II’ is a tribute to Italian composer Luciano Berio, and the piece was penned in 1965 to mark the 700th anniversary of Dante's birth. Fundamentally, it’s an orchestral work, but with the kind of additions only Patton and his choice of collaborators would take the liberty of adding and as such, don’t expect to hear any of its three pieces being aired on Classic FM any time soon. Needless to say, it’s performed with flare, passion and integrity, and is all about art rather than commercial considerations. With Patton’s narrative delivered in Italian and bursts of operatic vocal and various hiccoughs and cartwheels leaping over sporadic bursts of recorder and tensely simmering strings, it’s impossible to follow its trajectory, with ‘Part 2’ careening off on a crazy swingin’ jazz tip, reminiscent of the Foetus track ‘Slung’, only crazier and less overtly structured. It really is brain-bending stuff. Of course, you’d expect nothing less from Mike Patton.
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If anyone else had recorded and released this – with perhaps the exception of JG Thirlwell – it would be hard not to dismiss it as a mausoleum of insanity, pretentious guff that’s musically accomplished but simply too far out to be of merit. But Patton’s a different kind of musical proposition. He may have achieved fame and fortune with Faith No More, but rather than milk that cash cow (occasional reunion gig aside), he’s set on doing his own thing – and his own thing, when given the attention it deserves – is remarkable.
Not so much a psychodrama as a psychotic drama, ‘Laborintus II’ is as far out as it gets: I mean it’s so trippy it makes Gong sound positively straight-edge. But it’s also great fun and as Seal sang, ‘we’re never gonna survive unless we get a little crazy’. Perhaps unexpectedly, Mike Patton is one of the industry’s survivors, and the world’s an infinitely better place for his warped genius.
Mike Patton Online
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