Originally Posted by mr dave

i guess i'll be the first to say something about bungle besides OMG! BUNGLE!!!

mr. bungle is great and all but i really don't get how so many people classify them as any kind of metal. i suppose if you only listened to their demos and first album and skipped most of the 2nd you could but by the time the band was done they were very much their own style. the band proved this without any shadow of a doubt on 'california'.

i find that the bulk of bands who name drop bungle generally 'try' rehashing the apparent chaos of 'disco volante' without ever seeming to be capable of writing a complete song in just one style. that's what really set bungle apart for me, they were capable of pulling from all sorts of styles at the drop of a hat, AND they were also able to stick to one style for the duration of a whole song. a track like 'sweet charity' doesn't need a big metal breakdown in the middle for example.

i've yet to hear a bungle baby take that step, all i hear is a bunch of bits and pieces of stuff thrown together without any evidence there was anything else to the selections. conversely, most of the time those musical mosaics come across as glued together, there's no underlying sensation of the chaos just happening. it's calculated and at that point, no longer chaotic. i get the impression that more often than not the multitude of styles in most of the followers becomes more of a musical masturbatory measuring stick than anything necessary to propagate the musical piece.