Peeping Tom - Peeping Tom

Genre rock Publisher Ipecac Recordings External Links Official Peeping Tom Website Official Ipecac Recordings Website

With all that Mike Patton has come out with in his almost twenty year career, this project seems the most shocking in concept. Although not the most musically complex and being quite easily digestible, aesthetically speaking, this album is a try of the hand to make a pop sensation. A radio album, as Mike Patton hears it. The help he has had in the making of this album (which took about six years from conceptualization to the album's release) are notable musicians, mostly in the producer/DJ/hip-hop realm of music. With an appearance on Conan O'Brien, an ensuing tour and a fresh video for the first single, it seems like this concept isn't too far from the mainstream radio waves.

The most expected artist to assist is Dan The Automator, whose previous collaboration with Mike Patton, Lovage, used similar song structures. Lovage had more of a Serge Gainsbourg feel, sexy and charming, despite the rather disturbing nature of Mike Patton's love of bodily functions. This album has the feel of a great DJ mix curated by a mad-creative genius. It makes all sense that this project has garnered comparisons to Gnarls Barkley.

A gong hit opens the album and light percussion follows. Odd Nosdam has produced this track (entitled "Five Seconds") which quickly accelerates into Patton's sneered chorus that hits the eardrums in numerical tandem, grown from a seductive not-quite-whisper, quickly bookmarked by the gong and percussion. "Mojo" features Dan The Automater and Rahzel (who Patton has "battled" previously) and is the one that you are most likely to hear blasting out of an SUV by a man in a polo shirt and a cocked baseball cap. As the album progresses, the bill of underground hip-hop all-stars continues with contributions from the Anticon label's members, Massive Attack and Amon Tobin.

A tasteful Latin lounge track with Bebel Gilberto "Caipirinha" appears at the album's middle and hints at perhaps the most surprising collaboration: Norah Jones. Not only is the sultry collaboration "Sucker" a surprise, but the subject is the classic player question: A sucker born every minute, are you?

Even with a catalog spanning over multiple genres and quite a few years, Mike Patton has proven that he is still a fresh artist. With Patton still being in no less than three projects at any given time and running his label, Ipecac, Peeping Tom will strongly recommend that you, the reader, go see the show, buy the album, or turn on the radio, Peeping Tom will be on it somewhere.