No Hesitation
El Stew are a motley assortment: there's Brain, the drummer fromPrimus; DJ Disk, a.k.a. the Shigger Fragger, the godfather of the Invisibl Skratch Piklz; twisted guitaristBuckethead--who wears a chicken bucket atop his noggin whenever he appears onstage; Eddie Def of the Space Travelers (formerly the Scratch Hamsters); and producer Extrakd. It's an assemblage you might not expect to work, and their music is almost unclassifiable--except to say that it makes for a hell of an interesting listen. The album isn't a seamless mix of the quintet's talents, but it comes close: all five meet on a trippy, abstract plane and share the same twisted sense of humor. (If you recognize the two films they lift the phrase "klaatu barada nikto" from, this is the album for you.) Somehow, El Stew manage to fit funky dance tracks ("Reign of Terror"), bizarre dance tracks ("Surf Mission [Invasion of the Duck Punk]," with its chorus of quacks), and some very experimental, weird music side by side. That it never once feels out of place is an incredible accomplishment.--Randy Silver