Review Summary: John Frusciante's album is an enjoyable electronic mess and I think his first proper steps into this genre of music are successful.
John Frusciante is a never a stranger to reinventing himself completely or creating music that will seem strange and sometimes frustrating to either his hardcore fans or new listeners. This is very apparent on his album: 'PBX Funicular Intaglio Zone'.
John Frusciante left his longtime group - the Red Hot Chili Peppers - back in 2008, stating that he had other musical interests and directions, which he could only fully succeed in his solo career. He has managed to go in a completely different direction musically with this album. 'PBX' isn't just a Chili's album without the other members of the band. It is pretty much entirely electronic and the small doses of guitar that are added are heavily distorted with effects.
It seems that Frusciante used this album to really indulge in his interests in electronic music, as it spans many genres, such as: acid house, drum and bass, jungle, dubstep and synth pop. It feels very frantic and hyperactive throughout the record, as if he just took all of these elements of electronic music and through them into a pot and you can just hear them all bubbling and boiling over each other. The songs feel like progressive, electronic journeys and on some tracks, like 'Mistakes' for example, it sounds a lot like there are four different songs, which have just been condensed and spliced together into a 4 minute track.
The drums are all electronic on the album and he really plays around with them. The beats are constantly changing during songs, speeding up and slowing down. I think the most manic changes in drums are on the track 'Bike', where every 10 seconds or so, a new break beat will erupt in, and it just sounds like a really loud, messy, futuristic freak-out.
His guitar playing is very different on this record. John Frusciante was generally known to have a 'less is more' thought pattern when it came to guitar playing, but on 'PBX' he really lets loose. The guitar is very fast, technical and just strange. I feel like it could be possibly inspired by his friend and co-musician Omar Rodriguez-Lopez. His guitar is also very manipulated by synth and distortion effects. There isn't really any clean guitar sounds on this album, apart from possibly in the background of 'Ratiug'. The song 'Sam' features very dirty, heavy guitar on it; probably some of the heaviest sounding stuff he's ever released.
His vocals are sounding good on 'PBX Funicular Intaglio Zone' as well. He proves once again that he is a skilled vocalist, ranging from his signature falsetto to gravelly screams.
Overall, I'd say John Frusciante's first proper steps into electronica are very interesting and enjoyable. There isn't much I can really say in terms of bad spots on the album. The track 'Hear Say' is a bit boring and I generally skip it if I'm listening to the album, but the record is highly experimental and so any spots which do seem a bit off or weird, I forgive them because I know that in the future they will be fixed. I'm looking forward to what Frusciante will produce in the future, as I feel this was a strong album, yet he will be able to refine and control and improve on this sound further.
