Track 1 a of His Name Is
NNNNNN - A Musical Extravaganzais the 20-minute title piece - and it is to music what Tapas is to
food.
You know tapas..? It's the Spanish practice of serving a tiny but very tasty
bite of food, then you pause for a bit of conversation and a drink, then there's
a small serving of a very different but (again) extremely tasty snack, then more
drinks and conversation... Well David Cosgrove, the moving force behind Makkiwhipdies, presents his music in a similar way. A few
bars of wonderfully played, rather unconventional music, then a few weird
voice-overs, a few bars of something completely different but just as
spicy, then a few lines of Python-esque monolog, then a few more bars ...
and so on. The whole thing makes virtually no sense at all - but then, it's
really not supposed to. And as frustratingly disjointed as it is, the whole
experience is surprisingly addictive and you might find yourself visiting this
particular tapas bar again and again.
Alternatively - imagine a sort of musical train-of-thought - with a talented
musician laying down a few licks, then we hear his thoughts - just snippets of
random, half-developed musings - then he moves on to the next lick ... and you get
the scary impression of an apparently
half-developed mind.
Or think Frank Zappa in his most weird but brilliant moments - in say Just Another Band From LA.
The second half of the Makkiwhipdies album is marginally less peculiar. It is musically tighter,
almost as unconventional, and there are fewer vocal inserts.
So His Name Is
NNNNNN is avant garde progressive music, with a
refreshingly blatant disrespect for the rules. It's an aggravating,
infuriatingly self-indulgent, absurd, collection of head-scratching absurdities
- it's often brilliant, often puerile, and it's as catchy as hell and has
powerful hooks.
The album is all instrumental - in that there aren't any serious attempts at
singing - so don't ask what it's about - and the song titles won't give you much
clue either with names like "Vicious Cruiser", "Bobby-O-Bobby", "Increasingly
Pathetic", and "Dracula Hamster". There's the standard rock ensemble - with emphasis on guitar, piano, and
some particularly well constructed chops on the bass guitar. But these are
augmented by plenty of electronica, found-sound inserts, as well as theremin, marimba,
and English horn - all contributing to the CD's creative, eccentric vibe.
David Cosgrove describes himself as a "...conservatory-trained musical
theorist, classically-trained sound recording engineer, multi-instrumentalist,
philanthropist, avant-garde groundskeeper, perpetual green-thumb, web
developer". He's clearly a multi-talented guy, but after hearing this record you
might question his sanity - and he had me questioning my own sanity when I found
myself liking it.
This is really unusual stuff - and you should try it.
Track Listing:
His Name Is NNNNNN (20:36)
Always Merry and Bright (2:36)
His Name Is Clone (4:14)
Vicious Cruiser (1:53)
NNNNNN Hibachi Salesman, Basketball Star (1:09)
Bobby-O-Bobby (9:25)
Increasingly Pathetic (3:36)
Dracula Hamster (6:04)
Mr Z. Finishes Off NNNNNN (1:23)
Kazoo (6:55)
Disfinished Symphony (9:16)
The Crown Jewel (3:03)
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