We recently announced that Secret Chiefs 3 are about to embark upon a spring tour with Dengue Fever. Now we have news that Secret Chiefs 3 have a new 7″ vinyl to show for themselves, featuring the guest star Mike Patton.
In case you haven’t heard of them, Secret Chiefs 3 is an instrumental rock by founded by Trey Spruance (formerly of Mr. Bungle and Faith No More). Secret Chiefs 3’s diverse sound can be explained by the fact that their content is composed by 7 separate satellite bands, all fronted by Spruance. One of these satellite outfits, the Traditionalists, are planning a very special release featuring none other than Mike Patton.
As noted by the Web of Mimicry store, the Traditionalists are “decidedly walking in the footprints of the Great Masters of cinema music.” Being musically ambitious with an attention to detail, the Traditionalists found that they would need Mike Patton’s assistance with vocals for the vinyls A-Side, “La Chanson de Jacky”. This will be the first recorded collaboration between Patton and Spruance in over a decade. The B-Side includes the band’s reworking of the theme from 2004’s Book of Horizons. “The Western Exile” features voice and viola accompaniment by Anonymous 13.
Included below is Secret Chiefs 3’s description of their two new songs.
In 1965 Jacques Brel wrote and recorded a fiery three verse chanson exploding with the anxiety, bravado and panic faced by someone stretched to a midpoint across the abyss — to find oneself suspended between mediocrity and genius, villainy and heroism, doom and eternity, etc. In 1967 the nearly equally inimitable Scott Walker brilliantly re-interpreted Bel’s Chanson in English, to equal parts controversy and acclaim in the Anglosphere. In 2012, both versions of the tune have collided in an Anglo-Franco alliance, revealing perhaps an ever-implicit third dimension. It’s a stunt simultaneously ill-advised and absolutely necessary for a band like Secret Chiefs 3: Traditionalists to undertake — and one that could only be pulled off with someone uniquely qualified to take command of the vocals. Who other than the maestro Mike Patton, in this day and age, to do justice (and then some) without insult to such a preposterously Spartan legacy?
One of the main themes from Secret Chiefs 3’s 2004 album “Book of Horizons” receives a more spaghetti-seasoned marination in the crimson blood-soaked cemeteries of occidental exile. Not a chump re-mix, this is an entirely new thunderhead-evoking arrangement and recording, back-dated with a few more horsemen of the Apocalypse casting shadows over the Cowboys and Indians for cinematic effect. Already a well-proportioned auditory and philosophical compliment to its flipside, this recording is also one of the precious few Secret Chiefs 3 recordings graced with the voice and viola of Anonymous 13.
Head over to the Web of Mimicry store to purchase the 7″ vinyl.
“La Chanson de Jacky” Performers:
Mike Patton: vocals
Timb Harris: violins, trumpets
Steve Moore: trombones
Josiah Boothby: French horns
William Winant: snare drum, vibes
Adam Stacey: accordion
KT Pierce: backing vocals
Jason Schimmel: acoustic guitar, backing vocals
Trey Spruance: bass, glockenspiel, piano, celesta
“The Western Exile” Performers:
Anonymous 13: vocals, violas
Ches Smith: drums
Shahzad Ismaily: bass
Trey Spruance: baritone guitar, organs, percussion, sound fx, clavinet, electric guitar
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