Primus frontman Les Claypool and John Lennon's son join forces for a hazy, delirious trip.
South Of Reality is the kind of album that wears its own strangeness as a badge of honour. The Claypool Lennon Delirium is anchored by Les Claypool, bandleader with Primus, and anyone familiar with that band’s wonderfully weird textural music will at least be in the ballpark when it comes to this project.
Here joined by Sean Lennon (son of Beatle John), at times such as on the soaring Boriska, a Merseybeat melody floats throughout. Elsewhere, on the not-very-snappily titled Cricket Chronicles Revisited – Part I, Ask Your Doctor – Part II, Psyde Effects, the feel is of a desert-based acid trip that might at any moment turn exceedingly bad. And were it not for a reference to Tinder, Easily Charmed By Fools could well have emerged from the hippy psychedelia of groovy ‘60s San Francisco. The many moods of South Of Reality are both rewarding and unsettling, as if the music exists on shifting sand, and as the work of two wide and creative imaginations, it is tough to beat.
Verdict: KKKK
Words: Ian Winwood
