Pseud Sapien - Waiting for My Cancer to Arrive (Mood Swingin'!)

​Pseud Sapien

​Waiting for My Cancer to Arrive (Mood Swingin'!)

TOP ALBUM

​By ​Dino DiMuro​​​

Okay, so here's this guy from Virginia called Pseud Sapien (try as I might, I could not discover his real name!). He describes his music as landing "on the weirdo spectrum, erring on the side of being too strange for most people." His second album (free on Bandcamp) is called Waiting for My Cancer to Arrive (Mood Swingin'!). 

But will you want it? Good question for you, but not for me! Sapien mentions an early love for The Beatles, followed by a "pretentious" obsession with "Trout Mask Replica" and similar difficult music (I think he may be my lost brother!). The first time I played this album, my iPhone jumped out the window and ran screaming down the street, was run over and died instantly. Once over that shock, I was able to see Sapien's music as Zappa or King Crimson sped up 1000x. Among indie music I was reminded of Billy Baldwin (previously reviewed here) or Mike Keneally. Sapien compares himself to Mr. Bungle (multi-genre) or Snarky Puppy (compositional layering and density) but ultimately says "I see myself as a floating voice on the internet with the sole purpose of art."

Playing a track for my pal Don, he commented: "The drummer is off the wall!" But this is the work of Sapien and nobody else, which makes it even more insane! He does mention drumming in the past, along with guitar, bass and vocals "in a variety of band contexts." Sapien admits he "doesn't have much to show for my music in terms of numbers, but I have art to show for it, which is what matters to me." And now my point comes full circle, where (despite this rave review) I may wind up being one of Sapien's few fans. But let's see what happens!

Thematically Sapien describes this as "a concept album about an alien scout using its technology to merge its mind with the conflicting collective consciousness of humans, to see if both of our species can have a positive symbiotic relationship." He admits he's not a great sound engineer, but has a distaste for hyper-produced music and prefers rough edges. I find that statement amusing as his music-on-fast-forward sound, rapid cuts and patchwork genre mixing is (to me) the height of excellence in production (in other words, it goes by too fast to catch any mistakes!). 

"Birth of Rule, Birth of Resistance" begins with an alien voice similar to the robotic textures in Neil Young's "Trans" album. That's a very short pause before the madness begins, with a prog-rock crazy quilt that's not only tricky to follow, but seems impossible to have created (even on a computer!). For a moment a recognizable rock structure appears, then morphs into outsider jazz. The middle section with gruff vocals could be an alternate universe Metallica. Toward the end we suddenly switch to an Asian sound led by a Japanese Koto. Sapien will wind up doing lots of these head-snapping genre shifts, which I can't get enough of. 

"A Broken Dance (Premature Idealism)" sounds like Gershwin or Brian Wilson, singing and playing acoustic piano outside with the birds and wind. After the first verse Sapien comes back into studio, and his piano composing is a wonder to behold, with multiple voice timbres and harmonies (I was barely surprised when the chamber strings showed up!). The switch to jagged math rock comes so slowly it's even more of a shock when you're inside it. The conclusion is a field recording of a chorus of whistlers, with the reality of thunder claps and a coughing child in the background. "You Thought that You Thought that You Thought" brings us back to ultra-high-speed thrash, with a Zappa-like absurdist jazz rock middle, plus some Phillip Glass arpeggios. The track ends with a banjo, fiddle and accordion hoedown crossed with death metal.

"It Will Not Fade! (spoiler: it wlll...)" features some amazing percussion and Indian instrumentation, leading into some lovely keyboard and vocal sections (sometimes veering into circus music). And yes, it DOES fade at the end! "Ignore the Voices - Smile and Nod" welcomes hip hop into Sapien's musical stew, with a refreshing bit of air in the musical arrangement. Again we have some amazing percussion, lively and cleanly recorded, then some Zappian complications and a reappearance by 5-string banjo. "wait, THAT'S IT? SERIOUSLY?!?" is the ten-minute conclusion, essentially a rap tune and thus among the most straight-ahead sections in the album, but still has room for some dramatic playacting and a chamber section (plus a humorous ending, natch!).

Clearly I love this stuff, and music made at this level of complexity is less common than you might think. You won't know if YOU like it until you try it!

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