Search - Messer Chups :: Crazy Price

1950-60's Cut Up Exotica Album, and Pop Album Of The Year

Al-Ghaieru | Wisconsin, AKA | 10/28/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Now this is a frightening album, and another release typical and worthy of Ipecac Records. This was described to me as "surf music," which it is at times. But other times, a rockabilly strain can be heard, or country twang, or John Barry spy soundtracks. Or jazz. Basically, this is an "Exotica" album like Les Baxter and Martin Denney used to make. As they invented imaginary soundscapes for places they hadn't visited (the tropics, Africa, Far East, Atlantis, Mars), in a similar way, this album visits the 1950's-1960's through sound. THIS DOES NOT MEAN THAT IT'S "RETRO." It's music of our time, while using sound elements of those bygone decades (horror/sci-fi movie sound effects/samples, Farifsa organs, Theremins)through the magic of sequencing/sampling to create a cut-up sonic portrait of that era. It really rocks, and should induce dancing despite being unconventional as a pop album. The sampling is some of the most tasteful and creative I have ever heard, i.e. when a movie scream is sampled, the musicians actually use the pitch ascents and descents in the sample to carry the melody of the song, or at least harmonize with it. If I'm not mistaken, other Ipecac roster artists are also sampled on this disc-Mike Patton's Fantomas for one, and End (Pick up his "Sounds Of Disaster" too!)is sampled in the fourth track. As far as craziness goes, this even exceeds such old masters as Devo, Oingo Boingo, and The Residents."

Igloo Magazine's REVIEW

Pietro Da Sacco | 12/01/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Review by: Mark Teppo, Igloo Magazine (www.igloomag.com)

(10.04.05) Messer Chups are a band of crazy Russians obsessed with Dick Dale, Vincent Price, Betty Page and the monster kitsch of the 1950's. Armed with theremins, the "Sintiesator" and a love for C-grade horror flicks that would make Rob Zombie proud, Messer Chups offer 16 homages to classic Americana culture on Crazy Price.



Mad Scientist voices cackle with Transylvanian invective while synthesizers squirt and bubble with the fog boiling off noisome concoctions. South Pacific rhythms hum and dance in surreal interludes between spy music chase themes and harp-driven dirges spun through radioscopes and osciloscopes and elsewhere marimbas make Romanian folk music for bizarre science experiments to dance to. A saxophone wriggles through "Not Made in Japan" like the spirit of John Zorn catching a North Pacific wave bearing down on the cold shores of the Kamchatka Peninsula. Theremins and moaning matriarches compete with clattering drums and undulating synth rhythms for "Dabolik Boogie," a "Klaatu Barata Nikto" number that comes down through the old radio receivers like a transmission from outer space that has been caught in the troposphere for too many decades. Back-masked voices and church gongs sunder black atmospheres in "Anton La Vey 6.66fm," splitting the sky so that a drum kit can make waves for a static-laced surf tune complete with shimmering guitar and tin horn chorus.



It would be easy to say that something has been "lost in the translation" with Crazy Price but I think it is more accurate to invert yourself so as to get inside the head of Messer Chups. Weirdness abounds, but after a few listens, it starts to make sense. Or your brain undergoes a rewiring process. Either way, Messer Chups is broadcasting their psychotropic surf music across all wavelengths. Tuning in is easy; finding your way out again is something else entirely. Fall into their psychedelic maelstrom, but bring a circuit board to shoot the tube and come out on the other side of reality."

Great fun

R. Barnes | Philly | 08/26/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Messer Chups is an absolute delight to listen to. Surf guitar, garage rock, drum&base all collide with theremin-infused 60s horror cinema music and great samples from cheesy dialog from 60s b movies. When listening to this album, I am delighted and surprised by some particular choice of sample several times in each song. In addition, the original music is fun & upbeat and works perfectly to complete their plundering of good sounds from bad cinema. It is one of the most enjoyable albums I have purchased this year. Another album of theirs, Vamp Babes, I consider to be better than this one."