Disco Volante by Mr. Bungle (ALBUM REVIEW)

Released in 1995 on Warner Bros records.

Mr. Bungle formed in 1985 in Northern California. They've had a rotating line up of musicians playing within them, but usually the core members are Mike Patton (Faith No More, Fantomas, Maldoror, Lovage, Tomahawk, Peeping Tom), Trey Spruance (Secret Chiefs 3, Faith No More, Asva, Tub Ring) and Trevor Dunn (Melvins, Secret Cheifs 3, Fantomas, Junk Genius). They broke up in 2004. This is their 2nd major label album.

Disco Volante uses every music genre imaginable. It will confuse you, terrify you, amuse you and exhaust you. This album is like if you took a circus, a death metal band, a brass orchestra and a insane asylum, and put them in a blender.

There a couple of more straight forward tracks on here, but for the most part this album is a wildly experimental / avant garde affair. Tracks will switch tempos and genres on a dime. Most of the time it will just be some crazy ska / jazz song that'll turn into a thrash metal band and then turn into children's music from that. Not all the songs follow that formula, but they do share the sudden shifts in mood and sound. This album is full of detours and is very unconventional.

The vocals range from babbling to crooning to soaring falsettos to scatting to menacing whispers and so on. There's a wide range of instruments on display here like xylophones, tablas, organs, a reed section, saxophones, glockenspiels, bongos, etc etc.


A very scatterbrained album, but the musicianship on here is simply amazing, almost superhuman. The fact that they could recreate this madness live is very commendable since it would seem impossible for the average musician to even learn one song in their lifetime.

If you like avant garde, schizophrenic, extremely experimental, relentless music, this album is a must. To the average listener, this album will eat you alive and spit out your brain. It doesn't pull any punches, it's utterly relentless.

Since they cover every genre known to man, I could recommend this album to anyone, but really, this album is only for those who enjoy really avant garde / psychedelic / experimental / heavy metal / ska type shit, with the crazy aspect cranked up to 11. It's an album full of wonders and horrors. For the very adventurous. This album did wear me out and would probably have killed a lesser man.

3.5/5




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[RickyShoreSings]

my friend saw mr. bungle live on halloween and they dressed up as the red hot chili peppers and i guess they were just ridiculing them. one of the guys dressed up as hilel's ghost and he was pretending to shoot heroin and stuff. sounded pretty funny. i never got into mr. bungle but i appreciate them. excellent review as always, and nice work making it on the 100 most viewed canadian channels. keep it up, buddy!

[YoureWrongImRight]

Yeah, they actually toured with RHCP as an opening act and after a few shows, they really started to hate Anthony Kiedis. They have a lot of articles online about their feud.

[jumblejunkiemusic]

to bad there is no porno grind elements

[YoureWrongImRight]

Hahahaha ! Maybe they don't realise it exists like 99.9% of the world.

[elvispresly1]

woah! a lot of types of music in here, didnt know there was that much :) nice review :D

[YoureWrongImRight]

I probably missed some.

[snidley1979]

I used to work at waffle house and I would play this for the elderly.

[snidley1979]

crazy non-sence music? this album will rip the face off of anything it comes across musically.

[JustWannaFeelGood]

this album soooo awesome

[hawkman350]

Got this album cover tattooed on my chest!

[andycapist1]

most annoying guy ever

[MrHentaination]

@rwk1983 Riiiiight.....

[bobethe]

Musically (not counting Maldoror, Wierd Little Boy, his 2 solo albums, any time he's with Zorn, lol, ect) this album, on Warner Bros. is one of the strangest things ever recorded, i still don't get how they can do this, live TOO... I have the four song demo of it and i could see Warner Bros. listening to it going, "What did we do?" Patton said they were so happy when Bungle's third album came out cuz they were contractually over said biggest mistake warner bros made but they wanted Peeping Tom

[seanbenton10]

as he says " I think if you have it on vinyl there's a secret song" the actual secret songs starts to play lol..

[rwk1983]

i used to think disco volante was unique and obviously weird (it still is) BUT after expanding my tastes since ear 01' when i got this album i found out for the most part disco volante the majority is just a Sun Ra rip off.

[inhumanhyena]

I've been putting off hearing this until I purchase it so it's fresh for the first time, but I can't get this anywhere, and i actually forgot I wanted it, I want it so much more now

[TheTanOne19]

Horray for Eureka music :D

We have Mike Patton.

[tool619]

Esoteric is the only word to describe mr bungle. u think u know music, listen to mr bungle and think twice. it challenges the rules of music.