Les Claypool, bass virtuoso and all around musical legend, continues his trademark innovation and eclecticism in his latest release, Of Fungi and Foe. His work on the soundtrack for Pig Hunt, a film about a 3,000 pound wild boar who terrorizes marijuana gardens in Northern California, and Claypool’s original music for Mushroom Men, an interactive game about intelligent fungal life, serve as the backdrop for much of the album. The record draws from a large pool of musical influences and instrumentation, lending it a non-classifiable sound, somewhat akin to the later work of Tom Waits. In tracks like “Mushroom Men,” percussion thumps and clicks while distorted bass riffs buzz and gurgle on a journey through a phosphorescent fungal underworld. Others incorporate raucous gypsy rhythms, such as “Bite Out of Life,” a collaboration with Eugene Hutz of Gogol Bordello.
– Wes Jensen
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