Imagine, for a moment, that Blue Man Group took off their
\nmakeup, only to reveal themselves as a combination of The Residents
\nand GWAR (albeit with no scatalogical references). I think you’d be
\nclose to describing who Bentmen are… and even that isn’t quite
\nadequate to cover all bases.<\/p>\n
Their third CD,
\nImmaculate Contraption<\/i>, is a bizarre collage of music and
\nvocal imagery that is sure to send listeners hoping for something
\nmore stable scurrying for cover. If, however, you make sure your
\nseat belt is fastened and you hang on for dear life to the guard
\nrail, you just might find parts of this disc to be an enjoyable
\nride.<\/p>\n
Fronted by vocalist Des (who also wears the titles of lyricist
\nand “master of ceremonies”), Bentmen seem eager to take typical
\nsong structure and butcher it with a chainsaw. It’s kind of like
\nKMFDM meeting Nine Inch Nails in a blender – cripes, stop me before
\nI comparison shop again!<\/p>\n
The weirdness, though, occasionally seems to have its place as
\nthe music helps to tie all the loose ends together. Tracks like “My
\nSister’s Eyes,” “Boy \/ Girl,” “Holy Man” and “Lobster Bib” all do
\nhave more than a few moments where Bentmen prove there is method to
\nthe madness. Dare I say it, there even seems to evolve from the
\nnonsense soup a sense of structure and form – which, fittingly,
\ncollapses in upon itself at the conclusion of each song.<\/p>\n
A few songs do occasionally grate on the nerves (“Flatfoot,”
\n“Antithesis”), but I guess this is to be expected when you play
\nwith the laws of musical nature. And I’d be lying if I said this is
\nthe kind of disc that will please everyone. To understand what
\nBentmen are trying to accomplish means that you have to be more
\nadventurous in your musical adventures, and willing to try new
\nthings. Bentmen make sure you get more than the recommended daily
\namount of musical variety, that’s for sure.<\/p>\n
But it’s too easy to write
\nImmaculate Contraption<\/i> off as a novelty disc – as it most
\ncertainly is not a humorous listen. I don’t claim to have full
\nunderstanding of this disc yet, but there does seem to be something
\nunderlying all the crazed imagery, and if you can decipher that,
\nI’m willing to bet you’re in for a bigger treat than you would be
\nif you simply liked the music.<\/p>\n
\nImmaculate Contraption<\/i> is a strange, yet occasionally
\nwonderful listen that challenges the listener and stimulates their
\nminds. It’s not the normal way you’d spend 40 minutes in front of
\nthe stereo… and I think that was Bentmen’s goal all along.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25823,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6573],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-37029","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-bentmen","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37029"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37029"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}