Primus – Primus and the Chocolate Factory with the Fungi Ensemble

Primus Invades Wonka’s Factory!

Out of the many influential acts that came out of the 90s, many bands just couldn’t hold it together. Sure, one hears their names from time to time or may accidentally hear a new song on the radio, but hardly any of these iconic 90s bands still satisfy the auditory pallet. Though this is the case with numerous bands, others continue to be the exception, constantly reinventing themselves and causing glee to sprout in the underbellies of fans everywhere. Primus is one of these bands.

With the release of Primus and the Chocolate Factory with the Fungi Ensemble, they show that they have evolved intelligently and they still dare to test the murky cheese-seas of the imagination. This album is not only a testament to the wonder that is Primus, but also a grand and dark tribute to Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl book and 1971 Gene Wilder film alike. Words cannot alone express the absolute glee that this album will cause in the furthest and darkest regions of the brain’s pleasure senses.

It’s hard to know even where to start with this magnificent and creative tour through Wonka’s factory (that has now, of course, been commandeered by Les Claypool and his merry band of porkheads), from the bass-ridden opening moment of “Hello Wonkites” to the Magical Mystery Tour meets Kermit the Frog strangeness of “Cheer Up Charlie,” this album is simply awe-inspiring. This album presents all the beloved songs from the film with no lack of heavy bass thumping, bizarre back-woods mumbles, incredible feedback ridden guitar work, and fiercely gorgeous violin shredding by the Fungi Ensemble. The album continues on with “Golden Ticket” – a truly obnoxious rendition of Charlie and Grandpa Joe finding the golden ticket. The song itself makes it feel as though someone is waving that delectable ticket to the world of sweets in the face of all who listens.

Lest we forget the classic Oompa Loompa songs. Claypool didn’t. Included in his tour of the chocolate factory, the oompa loompas get a Primus touch as they sing about the follies of Augustus Gloop, Violet Beauregarde, Veruca Salt and Mike Teevee in “Oompa Augustus,” “Oompa Violet,” “Oompa Veruca” and “Oompa TV.” Primus surely put these spoiled children in place. They especially present the spoiled nature of Veruca Salt with “I Want It Now,” the song that Veruca sang in the Wonka movie to her father exclaiming that she wants it all.

The real treat in this album doesn’t come along until “Farewell Wonkites,” a mostly instrumental rendition of Wonka’s Imagination song that would make the members of Pink Floyd and Jimi Hendrix grin ear to ear. This song refuses to leave the mind long after its last listen. The haunting words alone will stay in the recesses of the imagination for a long time to come – “There is no, life I know, to compare, with pure imagination…”