Magicroom (Bentmen) Stamford Hill Review

Well, this is the Bentmen. I'll warn you right now, the Bentmen are next to impossible to categorize. In describing them, I've had to call them "art rock", "musical theatrics" and "just plain weird". A main part of the Bentmen is their live performance, which is missing from this CD. So I can't describe them fully, but take a look at the download page to see a glimpse of a live Bentmen performance... Meanwhile, the track-by-track:

Alive Alive Alive: The introduction to the whole album. It introduces the Bentmen as freaks of nature in a circus sideshow. The vocal and background effects are very cool, and set the mood perfectly. Be prepared for weirdness. Bonafide Lies: A very cool track, based around the drumming and chanting. All in all, it's a very rhythmic piece. Of special note is the wonderfully atonal guitar part, from Reeves himself. Ice Cream Clown: This track is pretty much defined by the wailing vocals and guitar parts. I can't think of any other way to describe this in words... but this track still scares me. Ulcer Gulch: This track is absolutely fascinating. First, there's the hammered dulcimer part at the beginning, which is such a foreign sound in standard rock music, and then the sound gets echoed by the electric guitar later in the song... Then add the fact that there's double-tracked vocals, which are one line off from each other throughout the song. Very weird, very cool. Stress for Success: The second song on the album with Reeves. Once again, it depends on the drumming and chanting. The screaming guitar parts are, unfortunately, relegated to the space between chanting. Still, a very cool track. I Remember Tooky: If you know the track "I was Ramona A. Stone" from David Bowie's 1.Outside, shorten the track to thirty seconds and increase the weirdness factor by about ten. This is the kind of track that you can't help but quote, just to scare people. Magicroom (One Step Beyond): The third and last track with Reeves playing guitar. And yet another "scary" track. I don't even know where to begin describing this one. You have to hear it to believe it. Lennon Song: This track has an undeniably cool groove. It's a song about John Lennon's death and a condemnation for Lennon's killer. Especially cool is the "Goo goo goo joob" chant, echoing Lennon's "I Am the Walrus" (a track almost as weird as the Bentmen). Wailing Wall: A song about the Wailing Wall, with an almost military feel to it -- especially during the chorus: "We are the Chosen Ones...." Imagine something along the lines of "Waiting for the Worms", from Pink Floyd's The Wall. Well, that's the best comparison I can come up with... Rumors Abound: The closing track to one of the weirdest albums ever made... and this track doesn't disappoint. Especially cool is the fade out -- a sort of general noise of metal-on-metal, which fades out for nearly a minute, and just when you think it's completely faded out... it fades out again (only 20 seconds this time, though).

The Bottom Line: You've most likely never heard an album this strange before. I sort of had to invent whole new levels of weirdness-in-music in order to describe the tracks, and even that can't begin to cover it.