Tomahawk > Reviews > Look Tom! A Hawk.

Author's product rating:   

Originality
Lyrics
Quality and consistency of tracks
How does it compare to the artist's other releases
Value for Money

Advantages:	The best goddamned album released
Disadvantages:	Not everyone will like it

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

First of all, let me say how shocked and impressed that this album is on Ciao. The second Tomahawk album has been given a lot more publicity and has actually been widely available whereas this, the first album, had very little.

Tomahawk are a band you’ve probably never heard of but let me give you a little bit of information. Mike Patton was in a band called Mr Bungle when Faith No More picked him up at the age of 19! He recorded 4 studio albums. He went back to Mr Bungle and recorded a couple albums. He then formed the Fantomas, Lovage and Tomahawk and has recorded with the Dillenger Escape Plan, John Zorn, Sepultura, Merzbow and Melt Banana among others.

Included in this awesome list of projects he co-founded Ipecac records, an independent record label dedicated to putting out records by bands that their record labels would never release. The reason for this, the record labels wouldn’t get the sales or the records were too off the wall or different from usual musical standards.

So, turning to this, the eighteenth of 32 releases on Ipecac and Tomahawks debut.

Tomahawk consist of the aforementioned Mr Patton as well as Duane Denison of Jesus Lizard, John Stanier of Helmut and Kevin Rutmanis of the Melvins.

As far as I know, Denison writes all the music and Patton writes the lyrics.

The Songs

Flashback
This song starts with a discordant driving guitar that builds up before dropping off to an eclectic drumbeat. Enter Patton on vocals almost whispering with a muted guitar riff that is very urgent, not laid back at all. The whole thing is very tense as if about to explode. And explode it does into the chorus “Did they make you wear a dress, did they?” He mocks in a torrent of cymbals as the guitar becomes less muted. Back to verse, less loud but as disturbing. Then he screams into the second chorus. The vocals become more tortured and then back to the discordant guitar at the beginning. It becomes more gentle, then a squeal and a scream and into a screaming frenzy a la Mike Patton then click click click click into track two.

101 North
A drum fill brings in track two straight into a driving guitar riff, some ethereal squeals and into whispered choral melodies before the singing comes in. It sounds very proud, following the guitar. The guitar gets more intense and the vocals go right down low. With shouts of “shut up!” coming in, it gets more intense building up to “You are the bullet, in the gun. I wanna screw on the silencer and have some fun” Then the chorus, big guitars and vocals back to the driving guitar. This whole song sounds insane with loud bits and then ominously quiet bits. References to masturbation, faeces and violence. The final line being “I feel hidings coming my way”. The song fades out and you are left powerless. This song is a good taster for the whole album, if you are listening to it and you don’t feel like you need a shower by this time, I’d be shocked.

Point and Click
A very loose bass riff and drum and yet again you feel like something is going to explode. The vocals come in and then Mike Patton panting before a very slow, very melodic chorus then a heavy chugging guitar to the, frankly scary, vocals again. Back to the chorus and fade out. This is a quiet track, but none the more disturbing for it.

God Hates a Coward
This starts with typically driving guitars, getting more urgent behind the distorted vocals, which are also getting more urgent and screamed towards the end of the section. Into the chorus with its big guitars and heavy cymbals and melodic singing. After the chorus there is a quiet section again with Patton whispering, “listen closer to your mother, you can hear ocean rolls. Sitting quiet in the corner, put another record on. God hates a coward sonny, Got a date with your VCR, watch another action movie, dream of me” This sends chills down your spine. Another verse and chorus screamed at the end herald the end of the song.

Pop 1
This track starts with huge sweeping synth strings and low-down whispered vocals which build up slowly with big electronic sounds a la Pink Floyd before it all cuts out with an urgent bass guitar fill and into the screamed “This beat could win me a Grammy” chorus. Unusual beats and load guitars and into distorted madcap vocals. More bass fills and back into the chorus. The sentiment of this song is so funny because it is the least commercial of the songs.

Sweet Smell of Success
Distortion starts this song, before a melodic guitar takes over. This has a very slow beat with Patton whisper singing again before going to a big chorus “Solid gold” and you could almost be listening to Faith No More. The song continues with a slow chugging section with more distorted vocals and more electronics to more whispered vocals ending with “You’ll never make it better”. And you just know that you never will.

Sir Yes Sir
This track begins in a five-four time signature, with another driving guitar riff sounding like a crazier version of ‘Hash pipe’ by Weezer. Whispered vocals in this version before entering a mad, screamed and layered “Sir, yes Sir” chorus. Back to the driving guitars and large sweeping synth sounds followed by another Faith No More-esque moment. The song gets more driving, with the guitars becoming more important before aberrantly finishing.

Jockstrap
A Jazz beat and more synth sounds, mind bending guitars and vocals that yet again remind me a bit of Faith No More. These lead into the chorus that has a guitar riff, a little like Marilyn Manson’s Beautiful People (well, kinda), guaranteed to get your head nodding. More melodic vocals and vocal clicks typical of Patton before going mad on the riff with added electronic squeals a la Merzbow.

Cul de Sac
This song starts with a detuned guitar and you can just imagine a cowboy sat there playing with his beaten up guitar. The chorus is very melodic and makes you feel sorry for the singer as if it was a blues song. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything like this before. It’s a short song and winds down as if a record player were turned off.

Malocchio
This song begins with a Dillenger Escape Plan- esque screamed section. Heavily processed guitars draw this song along into a big pre-chorus before the song is dragged kicking and screaming into the wailed chorus. Many electronic sounds fill the gaps along with processed vocal samples. After the second chorus the song kicks up a tempo and has a complex riffage and more screamed vocals.

Honeymoon
A helicopter sound kicks off this track, slow and quiet with more whispered and then melodic singing. The song enters a more Faith No More style sang section before returning to the slow and quiet.

Laredo
This song begins with big guitars reminding me of Lacuna Coil. The distorted vocal of “The cat’s in the bag and the bag’s in the river” over a driving guitar make up the chorus. A free guitar section builds up and the song returns to the style at the beginning. One more chorus and the song ends.

Narcosis
The last track makes you think of that cowboy again, this time with an added Native American type ‘Hum Baaah-hum’ and whistling. It feels as though the cowboy has been caught.

That’s the whole album and by now you must feel as though you need a shower to clean you of this aural invasion. Mike Patton’s vocals are superb, going to whispered to screamed to melodic. Denison’s guitar riffs are spot on and the band is held together through the complex rhythms and tempo changes perfectly by Rutmanis and Stanier

I don’t know who to recommend this album for. If you like pop music then you will not like this and that I can guarantee. Fans of Faith No More (esp. King for a Day… era) will love this, as will Fantomas and Melvins fans. Dillenger Escape Plan fans will like the majority of it. This band will probably never get played on the radio due to references to murder, sodomy, faeces, masturbation and other perversions. “Jeffrey Dahmer could have dinner to this” states one reviewer.

I love this album, the styles jump about so often and it is so atmospheric. Unfortunately, the vast majority of people will not like this album.

The album clocks in at around 42 minutes and retails at about £14 on Amazon. I got it for £9 at an independent record store.

I’m going to see Tomahawk next week along with the Melvins and Kadaa (Wahoo!!!). For those of you who do know of Mike Patton’s work, a joke:

Anthony Kiedis dies and goes up to the pearly gates. When he arrives he is greeted by St Paul, as is the custom. St Paul says to Kiedis “What is it that you wish most of all about your time here in Heaven”. Anthony Kiedis, who was always scolded in the press for ripping off Faith No More, said, “The one thing I want, is to never see Mike Patton again”

St Paul said that that was not a worry, because after many onstage antics, Mr Patton would never get in. Kiedis gives a sigh of relief and enters and sees Mike Patton. Kiedis turns back to St Paul and says, “You promised I would never see him again” to which St Paul replies:

“Oh, that’s God, he just thinks he’s Mike Patton”