''Zambodia'' is the only studio album by the American experimental music

ensemble Ensemble may refer to: Art * Architectural ensemble * Ensemble (album), ''Ensemble'' (album), Kendji Girac 2015 album * Ensemble (band), a project of Olivier Alary * Ensemble cast (drama, comedy) * Ensemble (musical theatre), also known as the ...

Motherhead Bug Motherhead Bug was an American rock music group founded in 1989 in New York City by singer and trombone player David Ouimet and bass guitarist Tony Lee. Band history Ouimet had earlier founded industrial rock group Cop Shoot Cop, and Lee was a m ...

. It was released on October 15, 1993, by Pow Wow Records. The record is dedicated to

Masami Shinoda Masami Shinoda (1958–1992) was well-known Japanese alto-saxophonist and composer. He began his career in the 1980s and was a member of both Seikatsu Kojo Iinkai Orchestra, and the Japanese band Compostela. His final performance, given in Tokyo ...

, a Japanese alto-saxophonist and composer who died the year prior to its release.

Background

After the release of '' Consumer Revolt'' and its coinciding tour, David Ouimet left

Cop Shoot Cop Cop Shoot Cop was a noise rock group founded in New York City in 1987. They disbanded in 1996. The band were frequently classified as industrial rock, but were often quite different from many bands so dubbed: having a distinctive instrumental l ...

to pursue his own musical ambitions. He formed

along with

Railroad Jerk Railroad Jerk was an American, New York-based indie rock band of the 1990s, specializing in a hard-driven punk blues sound. History Railroad Jerk's lineup changed frequently, but the core members were Minnesota native Marcellus Hall (vocals, guita ...

bassist Tony Lee sometime during 1989. As the band developed and more musicians joined they began to release

vinyl Vinyl may refer to: Chemistry * Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer * Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation * Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry * Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl ...

EPs. Their first official release ''Raised By Insects...Bugview'' was issued in 1991, featuring production by J. G. Thirlwell and an early version of the song "My Sweet Milstar". The next year the band released ''Age of Drawfs'' on PCP Entertainment, which contained "Bleating Heart Incident".

Music

Motherhead Bug was known to incorporate elements of

cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining o ...

big band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s ...

marching band A marching band is a group of musical instrument, instrumental musicians who perform while marching, often for entertainment or competition. Instrumentation typically includes brass instrument, brass, woodwind instrument, woodwind, and percus ...

nursery rhymes A nursery rhyme is a traditional poem or song for children in Britain and many other countries, but usage of the term dates only from the late 18th/early 19th century. The term Mother Goose rhymes is interchangeable with nursery rhymes. From t ...

gypsy jazz Gypsy jazz (also known as gypsy swing, jazz manouche or hot club-style jazz) is a style of small-group jazz originating from the Romani guitarist Jean "Django" Reinhardt (1910–53), in conjunction with the French swing violinist Stéphane G ...

, music hall, and even New York

noise rock Noise rock (sometimes called noise punk) is a noise-oriented style of experimental rock that spun off from punk rock in the 1980s. Drawing on movements such as minimalism, industrial music, and New York hardcore, artists indulge in extre ...

music into their work. ''Zambodia'' has been described as having a worldly and anarchistic sound, comparable to the French music group

Les Négresses Vertes Les Négresses Vertes, which formed in 1987, is a French music group that combines world music and some aspects of alternative rock. Tracks often feature acoustic guitar and accordion, with some containing other traditional instruments such ...

. David Ouimet has attributed his background in classical as well as his work in the New York underground as being influential to his music. Martin Bisi, who produced the album, has discussed the bands importance as the first rock ensemble to fully incorporate Eastern European influences into their music, preceding bands such as

Gogol Bordello Gogol Bordello is an American punk rock band from the Lower East Side of Manhattan, formed in 1999 by musicians from all over the world and known for theatrical stage shows and persistent touring. Much of the band's sound is inspired by Ro ...

Release and reception

The album is currently out of print, however it can be purchased in mp3 form from online stores such as amazon.com. One

Trouser Press ''Trouser Press'' was a rock and roll magazine started in New York in 1974 as a mimeographed fanzine by editor/publisher Ira Robbins, fellow fan of the Who Dave Schulps and Karen Rose under the name "Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press" (a reference ...

critic described the album as follows: "The instrumentation and Ouimet's theatrical vocals lend a

decadent The word decadence, which at first meant simply "decline" in an abstract sense, is now most often used to refer to a perceived decay in standards, morals, dignity, religious faith, honor, discipline, or skill at governing among the members of ...

grandeur to Weill-esque numbers like 'Demon Erection' and 'My Sweet

Milstar Milstar (Military Strategic and Tactical Relay) is a constellation of military communications satellites in geosynchronous orbit, which are operated by the United States Space Force, and provide secure and jam-resistant worldwide communications ...

.' It may be burlesque, but it's still pretty scary stuff."Black, Art/Sprague, David
"Cop Shoot Cop: Motherhead Bug"
trouserpress.com. Retrieved on April 19, 2010.

Track listing

Personnel

Adapted from the ''Zambodia'' liner notes. ;Motherhead Bug * Jez Aspinall – drums id vocals (9) *April Chung –

violin The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...

oboe The oboe ( ) is a type of double reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites. The most common oboe plays in the treble or soprano range. ...

*Jim Colarusso –

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

*Julia Kent –

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a bowed (sometimes plucked and occasionally hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually tuned in perfect fifths: from low to high, C2, G ...

Tony Lee Tony may refer to: People and fictional characters * Tony (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Gregory Tony (born 1978), American law enforcement officer * Motu Tony (born 1981), New Zealand international rugby leagu ...

–

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

(10), design *Cyril Mazard – drums ow*Steve McMillen – guitar * David Ouimet –

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate ...

illustrations An illustration is a decoration, interpretation or visual explanation of a text, concept or process, designed for integration in print and digital published media, such as posters, flyers, magazines, books, teaching materials, animations, video ...

*Steve Ovenden – drums,

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

, backing vocals *Joe Ben Plummer –

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of Single-reed instrument, single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed (mouthpi ...

*Tomoyo T.L. –

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

gong A gongFrom Indonesian and ms, gong; jv, ꦒꦺꦴꦁ ; zh, c=鑼, p=luó; ja, , dora; km, គង ; th, ฆ้อง ; vi, cồng chiêng; as, কাঁহ is a percussion instrument originating in East Asia and Southeast Asia. Gongs ...

, design ;Additional musicians and production *

Michele Amar ''Sulfur'' was an American rock ensemble formed by Michele Amar in New York City in 1991. It was originally an outlet for Amar's solo work until it expanded drastically with the inclusion of seven members and a number of additional side personnel. ...

– backing vocals *

Martin Bisi Martin Bisi (born 1961) is an American producer and songwriter. He is known for recording important records by Sonic Youth, Swans, John Zorn, Material, Bill Laswell, Helmet, Unsane, The Dresden Dolls, Cop Shoot Cop, White Zombie, Boredoms, A ...

–

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

, backing vocals *Reilly Bones – glockenspiel (4, 11),

xylophone The xylophone (; ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets. Like the glockenspiel (which uses metal bars), the xylophone essentially consists of a set of tuned wooden keys arranged in ...

(4, 11) *Chris Gehringer – mastering *Brenda Nasse – accordion (4) *

Adam Nodelman Adam Nodelman (1966 – 2008) was an American bassist. A native of Nyack, NY, he was known for his contributions to the jazz trio Borbetomagus, hardcore punk band, Borscht, and also worked with Motherhead Bug, Crash Worship, Missing Foundation ...

– bass (4) *Murray Weinstock – accordion (4, 9) *

Norman Westberg Norman Westberg is a guitarist from Detroit best known for his work with Swans. Present through almost the entirety of the band's existence, Westberg was brought on for Swans' debut album '' Filth'' (1983) and appeared on every album through 199 ...

– guitar (1, 2)

Release history

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1993 debut albums Motherhead Bug albums Albums produced by Martin Bisi