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Delìrium Còrdia

 
Album Review: Delirium Cordia

  • Artist: Fantômas
  • Rating: StarStarStarHalf Star
  • Release Date: January 27, 2004
  • Genre: Rock

Review

The third release by Fantômas, Delirium Cordia, turns a bit of a different direction from the band's previous releases. Delirium Cordia is one track clocking in at 74 minutes. The record is always haunting; giving one a sense of the grizzly images of the insert booklet -- photos of surgeries in action. The music has film score qualities, a feeling of being lost in a hospital at night, a hospital much like that of Lars Von Trier's The Kingdom, while Hellraiser demons watch and wait from afar. Where Director's Cut was a variation of different '70s film themes, Delirium Cordia is a score to Patton's own horror-filled imagination. Fantômas are open and free, but always maintain a rhythmic through-line, whether a bass, samples, or percussion. Many styles weave throughout the disc: '60s easy listening, dark metal, Gothic chanting, and world inflections. And all of these styles now come to mind when thinking of Mike Patton's projects, from Mr. Bungle to Faith No More to Fantômas. Clicks and glitches lie at various levels in the mix, created by percussion or samples to taunt the listener, giving a tension and dissonance that really never gets resolved. Fantômas use many instruments to create layers of unease, everything from full metal-band instrumentation to whistling and backwards whispering with piano and bells, ringing the same melody creating chills up the back with the death chimes and chants. In the many turns that twist in surprise and mood, the metal -- that could be attributed to familiarity of the members of Fantômas -- Buzz Osborne of the Melvins, Dave Lombardo of Slayer, Trevor Dunn of Mr. Bungle, and, of course, Mike Patton -- creeps into the mix every once in awhile and is totally tight, appropriate, and on-point. As soon as one begins to feel comfortable with their unease, Fantômas always puts the listener in check, mingling atmospheric and terrifying levels in the music. The end of Delirium Cordia sounds like a looped groove of a vinyl record with no one to mind the needle, setting us up for a sequel. Mike Patton and crew give us another great work, leaving us to wonder what lies around the corner. ~ David Serra, All Music Guide

Tracks

Track TitleComposersPerformersTime
Surgical Sound Specimens From the Museum of Skin: Like the Surgeon/The Fantômas (74:16)

Credits

Mike Patton (Producer), Mott Lange (Assistant), Buzz Osborne (Group Member), Mike Patton (Design), Martin Kvamme (Design), Martin Kvamme (Layout Design), Mike Patton (Layout Design), Max Aguilera-Hellweg (Photography), Trevor Dunn (Group Member), S. Hvsky Höskvlds (Engineer), Richard Selzer (Voices), Dave Lombardo (Group Member), Mike Patton (Group Member), Gene Grimaldi (Mastering)
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Wikipedia: Delìrium Còrdia
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Delìrium Còrdia
Studio album by Fantômas
Released January 27, 2004
Recorded Spring 2003
Genre Experimental rock
Avant-garde metal
Dark ambient
Length 74:17
Label Ipecac Recordings
(IPC45)
Producer Mike Patton
Professional reviews
Fantômas chronology
Millennium Monsterwork 2000
(2002)
Delìrium Cordìa
(2004)
Suspended Animation
(2005)

Delìrium Còrdia is the third full-length album by Fantômas. It was released on Ipecac Recordings in 2004.

Contents

Style

Music

The music, which was composed solely by Patton, could be described as the score to a horror movie and/or concept album centering on the theme of surgery without anesthesia. The album consists of a single track that runs for 74 minutes and 17 seconds.

Several music genres and styles are covered over the course of the album, including easy listening, chanting, Drone, and metal, generally being separated by ambience and sounds and voices in a surgical setting. There are no lyrics or song structures as such as one would traditionally expect; the band instead focuses on atmosphere and the creation of suspense through the use of eerie noises, wordless vocals, and sudden, jarring changes in volume and intensity. Approximately the last 20 minutes of the track consist of the sound of a turntable stylus stuck in the runout groove of a record. The track then ends abruptly, with the sound of someone counting in a fast tempo, followed immediately by the stylus sliding across a record's surface.

Artwork

The booklet contains graphic photos of actual surgeries in which organs are seen being removed from human bodies from Max Aguilera's book The Sacred Heart: An Atlas of the Body Seen Through Invasive Surgery. Low-resolution images can be viewed here.

A quote on the label backcard reads: "Like the surgeon, the composer slashes open the body of his fellow man, removes his eyes, empties his abdomen of organs, hangs him up on a hook holding up to the light all of the body's palpitating treasures sending a burst of light into its innermost depths." The quote is attributed to Richard Selzer M.D., who is also credited with "voices." This quote is paraphrased from Selzer's introduction to Max Aguilera's book , though it replaces the word "photographer" (Aguilera's profession) with "composer."

The font used for all text contained on the album uses V in place of U (with the exception of the "Max Aguilera" and "Manufactured and Distributed by Caroline Distributions"), presumably a nod to Latin spelling conventions. For example, "Buzz Osborne - Trevor Dunn" is written on the back as "Bvzz Osborne - Trevor Dvnn", etc.

Track listing

  1. "Delìrium Còrdia" (Mike Patton) – 74:17

Note: The phrase "Surgical Sound Specimens From The Museum of Skin" (written on the back of the box) and the Richard Selzer M.D. quote (shown above) are both sometimes referred to as the actual name of the piece, however it is officially simply known as Delìrium Còrdia.[1]

Credits

References



 
 

 

Copyrights:

Album Review. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Music Guide ®, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Delìrium Còrdia" Read more