Tobacco – Maniac Meat

He’s a Maaaaaniac

After making his mark as the frontman for the psychedelic electronic band Black Moth Super Rainbow, Tobacco releases his second solo, Maniac Meat. This time around, Tobacco gets in your face with hard rock, high distortion, and darker vocoding. This 16 track album contains short-length tracks you would expect to find from a punk band, with an average run time of 2 and a half minutes per song, but what they lack in quantity they make up for in quality.

Maniac Meat jumps right into it, slamming listeners with highly distorted guitars and synthesizers in addition to Tobacco’s vocoded vocals over equally distorted drums on “Constellation Dirtbike Head,” sounding at times like the revving engine of a dirt bike. The synth-infused “Fresh Hex” continues the fast, hard rock stylings and features very fitting vocals by Beck. However, this track is short and sweet, running only 1:35. The song “Sweatmother” shows us a little more gritty side of Tabacco, whose heavy bass distortion and darker vocals sounds like something you would hear on a Nine Inch Nails album. “Grape Aerosmith” is another industrial sounding jam with Beck’s vocals that you wouldn’t normally hear on a Beck record. The vocoding is omnipresent and very fascinating, which isn’t seen a lot in modern music. Overall, the electronic overhaul is only slightly reminiscent of Black Moth and brings a faster BPM, more bass, and rock influences.

During an interview with MXDWN, Tobacco referred to Maniac Meat as more “sinister” sounding, which is readily apparent upon listening. Still, he manages to include a good variety of sounds here, ranging from the high distortion fast rockers to the slower, downtempo beats, ominous industrial melodies and of course, the Rainbow-esque psychedelic tracks are thrown in for consistency. Tobacco applies fresh elements here that may come off slightly esoteric but nonetheless remain innovative.