''Of Natural History'' is the second studio

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records co ...

avant-rock Experimental rock, also called avant-rock, is a subgenre of rock music that pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique or which experiments with the basic elements of the genre. Artists aim to liberate and innovate, with ...

metal A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typicall ...

group

Sleepytime Gorilla Museum Sleepytime Gorilla Museum (often abbreviated to SGM) was an American experimental rock band, formed in 1999 in Oakland, California. The band fused classical, industrial, and art-rock themes throughout their music. They were known to perform elabo ...

. It was recorded and mixed at Polymorph Recording in

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

during the years 2003 and 2004. Whereas on the first album, '' Grand Opening and Closing'', Dan Rathbun handled the mastering (in addition to producing, recording, and mixing), on Of Natural History the mastering duties are handled by Justin Weis, who mastered the album at Trakworx,

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. All the tracks on this album were produced by Rathbun & the other members of the band, except for "Phthisis", which was produced by Scott Humphrey, and recorded at the Chop Shop, Hollywood in May 2004; Chris Baseford engineered the recording sessions, while Garry Raposo and Vincent Piette assisted in engineering. Like with the first album, this album again marks the transition from one drummer to another: Frank Grau, who replaced David Shamrock after ''Grand Opening and Closing'', left after this album, and was replaced by Matthias Bossi, who plays different instruments on this album's tracks "Phthisis", "FC: The Freedom Club" and "Gunday's Child".

Music

''Of Natural History'' continues on the same diverse and eclectic musical lines as its predecessor, with more new elements, such as intelligent dance music ("Bring Back the Apocalypse") and funk ("Gunday's Child"). Other elements include heavy metal ("The Donkey-Headed Adversary of Humanity Opens the Discussion" and "Phthisis"),

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. In ...

("FC: The Freedom Club"),

post-metal Post-metal is a music genre rooted in heavy metal but exploring approaches beyond metal conventions. It emerged in the 1990s with bands such as Neurosis and Godflesh, who transformed metal texture through experimental composition. In a way si ...

("Babydoctor"), western music ("Cockroach"),

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...

("The 17-Year Cicada"), as well as many more. Also notable is the incorporation of a plethora of field recordings and samples into the songs and interludes. ''Of Natural History'' has a continuity in the sense that all the songs sequence into each other, thus holding the narrative element(s) of the album better together. The continuity and the coherent feel make ''Of Natural History'' very close to a concept album; its underlying mood is concerned with the apocalyptic implications caused by human presence on earth. To offer different viewpoints on this, SGM create their own characters and stories (tracks 1 & 2, both of which are a continuation of a story created on the first album), and borrow from

Filippo Tommaso Marinetti Filippo Tommaso Emilio Marinetti (; 22 December 1876 – 2 December 1944) was an Italian poet, editor, art theorist, and founder of the Futurist movement. He was associated with the utopian and Symbolist artistic and literary community Abbaye d ...

Unabomber Theodore John Kaczynski ( ; born May 22, 1942), also known as the Unabomber (), is an American domestic terrorist and former mathematics professor. Between 1978 and 1995, Kaczynski killed three people and injured 23 others in a nationwide ...

T.S. Eliot Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 18884 January 1965) was a poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic and editor.Bush, Ronald. "T. S. Eliot's Life and Career", in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds), ''American National B ...

Muriel Rukeyser Muriel Rukeyser (December 15, 1913 – February 12, 1980) was an American poet and political activist, best known for her poems about equality, feminism, social justice, and Judaism. Kenneth Rexroth said that she was the greatest poet of her "e ...

, and

Kenneth Patchen Kenneth Patchen (December 13, 1911January 8, 1972) was an American poet and novelist. He experimented with different forms of writing and incorporated painting, drawing, and jazz music into his works, which have been compared with those of Will ...

(tracks 3, 5, 6, and 9, respectively) in addition to own lyrics. According to the band'
official website
''Of Natural History'' is in part "a debate between two contradictory pillars of 20th C. Anti-Humanism: The Futurists versus the

Track listing

# "A Hymn to the Morning Star" - 5:40 # "The Donkey-Headed Adversary of Humanity Opens the Discussion" - 6:01 # "Phthisis" - 3:44 # "Bring Back the Apocalypse" - 4:10 # "FC: The Freedom Club" - 10:48 # "Gunday's Child" - 6:56 # "The 17-Year Cicada" - 3:41 # "The Creature" - 6:00 # "What Shall We Do Without Us?" - 2:38 # "Babydoctor" - 13:59 # "Cockroach" - 2:12 # (Hidden Track) - 5:56

Personnel

Carla Kihlstedt Carla Kihlstedt (born 1971) is an American composer, violinist, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist, originally from Lancaster, Pennsylvania and currently working from a home studio on Cape Cod. She is a founding member of Tin Hat Trio (1997, ...

- Violins, Percussion Guitar,Sleepytime Gorilla Museum uses a lot of homemade instruments. See the main article about the band. Autoharp, Organ, Voice, Choir (Soprano Voice) * Dan Rathbun - Bass, Log, Roach, Trombone, Lute, Voice, Choir (Baritone Voice) * Frank Grau - Drums, Melodica * Matthias Bossi (''tracks 3, 5, & 6'') - Drums, Glockenspiel, Xylophone, Voice; (''track 1'') Choir (Tenor Voice) * Moe! Staiano - Metal, Wood, Bowed Spatula, Glockenspiel, Spring, Paper *

Nils Frykdahl Nils Frykdahl is an American musician, most known for his work with the bands Sleepytime Gorilla Museum and Idiot Flesh. He is also a member of the bands Free Salamander Exhibit, Faun Fables, and Darling Freakhead, and used to be a member of Char ...

- Guitars, Flutes, Voice, Choir (Contralto Voice)

Notes

{{Authority control 2004 albums Avant-garde metal albums Sleepytime Gorilla Museum albums