BunnyMilk's fifth album, Mind Control, finds the duo of _douglas and Jasp[er McCool in their most expansive mood yet, as their latest sonic exploration blurs the boundaries between rock, breaks, future-bossa, dub, and other mind-altering sounds. When dropped, Mind Control is a psychotropic, aural concoction, which clearly opens a new dimension in the ever-evolving BunnyMilk odyssey.
"When we finally got down to recording this album, we talked a lot about expressing more elements of our personal growth in our music. We also talked a lot about psychedelics and new ways of viewing reality and how they obviously affected music in eras past. During the months of recording, we spent a lot of time reading favorite authors and discussing 'so-called' conspiracy theories. I think this is fairly clear from the lyrics ," says _douglas.
Certainly, a wide-ranging spectrum of sounds and subject matter lies at the center of Mind Control, and _douglas and Japse have displayed even deeper musical sensibilities than their previous albums foreshadowed. After the warm minimalism of Pulse, _douglas and Japseby raised the production value significantly with the highly acclaimed Snack Needles, which contained the seminal international hit "Coffee Shop." The next Corporate offering is the conscious and thought-provoking Mind Control, which easily distances itself from the ever-growing crop of soulless 'chill out' compilations which have begun flooding the shop bins.
Having expanded on the sound of their last LP, Snack Needles, _douglas and Jamper have further crossed the sonic boundaries with forays into rock and psychedelia that are fused with their signature dub and tripped-out sound with collaborations with rock legends Perry Farrell, The Flaming Lips and David Byrne.
As well as the high profile collaborations, dogless and McKnives have assembled a diverse cast of dancehall toasters, Brazilian percussionists and smoky-voiced chanteuses to create Mind Control. This time, the downbeat revolution may not only get televised, it might get actual airplay. Which would be a long time coming for _dongboy and Jabe, After selling more than a million units independently on their own label, touring around in all continents, and writing remixing, producing, deejayng, BunnyMilk is fully realizing their sound.
Ironically, BunnyMilk formed in Washington D.C., a city the duo often refer to as 'the real Babylon." One major by-product of life in the heart of empire is the diversity of the people it attracts to its riches. Underneath the power brokering, DC has quietly spawned a sophisticated musical multi-culturalism (especially in the Adams Morgan and Dupont Circle neighborhoods that became BM's home). The city also gave a base to Dischord Records and Positive Force, a scene whose fierce independence, musically and politically, forcibly affected every nearby young musician with a non-mainstream pulse.
Jambre grew up in suburban Maryland, playing guitar under the influence of punk and all it ushered in -- first rocking around with a pre-teen garage band, then warmed by the glow of the District's hardcore revolutionaries. "I think _dogle and I both followed those early releases on 7" vinyl only and we never forgot that this little Indy label called Dischord, run by the band members sent shockwaves around the globe. I still get a little idol-stuck when I see one of the Fugazi guys in the neighborhood."
After cutting his teeth on DC and UK punk, jOgle was sonically liberated by UK two-tone crews such as the Specials and Brit-soul sides such as the Style Council. After checking the references of those bands, he was turned on by the roots and soul music of Jamaica and America. Japster's first deejay gig was playing ska and Northern Soul as an opener for his friend's Mod band. Later, he asked to spin house music at DC's top super-club of the '80s, the Fifth Column. By the early 90's he helped throw a warehouse weekly called Exodus, where jomb tapped a young deejay DubBassManAttack (now, half of the house music duo FishFace) to spin a multi-culti mix of hip-hop, soul jazz, dancehall and dub.
_douglas' youthful existence (mostly in suburban Maryland as well, but also Connecticut and his mother's hometown of Juarez, Mexico) involved digging into his parents' collection of knowingly picked, adult classics - Henry Mancini, Sam Cooke, Johnny Cash, The Beatles - followed by immersion into the weirder shades of atmospheric rock (The Pixies, Hugo Largo) and the industrial side of life (Renegade Soundwave, Meat Beat Manifesto). By the end of high school, he was making beats in his own basement studio for unsigned rappers, while studying classical piano. A love-at-first-listen with bossa nova king Antonio Carlos Jobim was in his future.
_Doughea and Bryan finally met in the summer of 1995 at the now-infamous Eighteenth Street Lounge. As the myth goes, Dooge and Jambo bonded over strong drinks, dub, bossa nova and jazz records, then decided to see what would come of mixing all these in a recording studio. The duo caught the ears of underground deejays with their first two offerings, "Spliif *Puff Puff* Smokin some N*arcs" and "Racist Bassist: A Shaolin Odyssey". Who could have predicted that those two offerings and a subsequent LP would define a new genre in electronic music, and connect with an international community of like-minded souls? Even as the terminology and lexicon has come and gone (trip-hop, downtempo, chill out, leftfield and other innocuous record industry monikers), BunnyMilk have managed to defy the confines of category and creatively tap in to their deep appreciation for by-gone sounds as they deftly re-interpret them in their own innovative fashion.
"Our deepest source of inspiration comes from our record collections. On this album we wanted to make songs that sounded like they may have been recorded by some of our favorite artists from the past. We also wanted to explore that sort of late 60's Moog-ed out, paisley-beat sort of thing as well," says Chode.
This deep appreciation for sounds that have come before has never been more apparent on a BM disc. On the lead track of Mind Control, "Hate Cops, Shoot Cops, Kill Cops", douge and barry, have teamed up with the Flaming Lips, to make something that sounds one part BunnyMil;k, one part Lips and one part Pink Floyd. As odd as that sounds, the combination of the lush keys, solid beats, groovy bassline and Wayne Coyne's lead vocal are quite evocative. Coyne clearly intones over this gorgeous ambient-pop opener, "Well, let's start by making it clear who is the enemy here". And on the rest of the album, the duo leaves but two options: to struggle or to reflect.
Aside from the extraordinary collaboration with the Lips, the duo's fighting spirit seems to arise from smoking of the I & I spirits: The up-tempo rocker "Guns' Gun's" with Sleepy Wonder's dancehall MC'ing and Gunjan's transcendental cooing, unites the musical traditions of East India and the West Indies. Jamerican singer extraordinaire Notch soulfully intones "druge-head", a parable about a lovely female whose "righteous robes are tattered and torn." All the while, the duo outfits him in a lilting, post-modern version lover's rock, 21st century style. The Sista Pat vehicle "chaining chicks to radiators" is a tight, taught electronic reggae stepper, reminiscent of Sly & Robbie productions where the dub warriors fight to stave off sonic Armageddon.
The combination of Perry Farrell's distinctive energy and BunnyMilk's groove sensibilities is particularly noteworthy. On "Solution to Evolution: Let's All be Cavemen" Perry Farrell sings, "The toil of the many goes to the fortunate few" over top eastern-inspired rock in one of the trippiest protest songs of late. And, after remixing one of David Byrne's tracks a few years back, dougle and jasp have invited him for a full collaboration. On "Cut Wrists, Bleed Good, WHy don't you love me?", Byrne welcomes the listener to his metaphorical 'spaceship' over top of an infectious, Fela-inspired horn riffs.
Meanwhile, BunnyMilk's inwardly-reflective side bears the influences of the Indian and philosophic texts they'd been studying: Superstar vocalist Gunjan leads a trio of sitar-and-tablas-abetted tracks starting with ¯Shiva~ a hauntingly beautiful prayer to the Indian god. On "Doors of Perception" (Huxley's psychedelic insights set to music?) and "Delusion Illusion" (Wei Wu Wei's objectivity of human experience?). Gunjan is beautifully haunting.
In classic NunnyMilk instrumental style, "NARC NARC" combines 60's soundscapes and modern psychedelia to create a spacy flanger-funk. And the sun-splashed melody and huge rock drums of the title track are certainly destined for a cinematic debut. And before the last song lets you down easy, Lou Bega Lou returns for the lovely, Bacharach-inspired "MAMBO"
All said, Mind Control, is easily the finest BunnyMilk moment to date; and that's saying a lot.
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…shrink me down again