The Friendliest Psychosis of All  

Après le très funky "Psychotic friends nuttwerx" de 2000, fishbone accélère le rythme avec ce 3 titres plus costaud. Le 1er est impressionnant avec sa floppée d'invités: George Clinton, la totalité de Primus... Un bon titre très groovy multi-voix avec un phrasé rappé assez neuf chez Fishbone. Le 2ème est du Fishbone classique qui déboule à toute allure avec une guitare plus présente qui donne à la chanson une couleur métal.
Le 3ème est un monstre de plus de 20 minutes qui malgré sa longueur ne connait pas vraiment de temps mort et tient la distance sans perdre sa structure en court de route. Dans sa forme, c'est la passerelle entre les 2 premiers: conservant le groove du premier et empruntant la guitare du premier... et en prime le sax d'Angelo.
Le bémol provient de la production un peu faiblarde qui donne un son un peu terne alors que Fishbone nous a habitué à un son plus coloré. Et puis, un véritable album aurait été si bien...

This EP really is not Fishbone in my personal opinion. It is more a patchwork of Nuttmeg music that displays a broad range of California's finest contemporary artists, getting together with the great institution that is Fishbone for a pieced together jam. Althought it features some of my favourate artists who team up up with Fishbone, such as Primus, Blowfish, George Clinton to name a few, I found that there was an absence of the Fishbone sound here in this release and the other artists really did not add much magic. Being unreleased and uncensored out take tracks from Fishbone's 2000 album "The Friends Psychotic Nuttwerx", I can sort of understand why Hollywood Records refused to have these tracks on the final release. You have to have some patience and more than the average attention span to be able to listern to the whole thing without switching out.

Second Track, 'Let Them Hoes Fight' is the closest you get to a song that you can really get your teeth into but it still lacks something. The rest of the EP being only two other tracks, 1 and 3, are just a little raw for my taste. Track 3 being just shy of half an hour is a great inprovised jam with Angelo Moore (vocalist and saxophonist of Fishbone) laying down phrase after phrase of witty poetry but come the 10 minute mark, nothing much changes and some awesome music is drown by the relentless words of Dr Madd Vibe.

For the diehard Fishbone fan of recent times, this EP may be of some interest to you, but for me, I hear more of the friends than the 'Bone.
Looking at the rest of the reviews, I am in the minority here, but after playing this EP to friends who loved Fishbone in the early to mid 90's, their reaction indicated that I was not alone.
If you want some real recent Fishbone magic, get a copy of the brilliant 'Live At The Temple Bar and More - Fishbone' LP that has just been released opposed to this EP.
".....that's just how I feel man."

One of the great sins of the modern world is that Fishbone has never gotten the props they deserve. As if it wasn't sad enough that the original band mostly dematerialized, they continue to be disrespected and held down by a largely racist industry. But this record is true vindication! Fishbone lets loose with a no-holds-barred, double-barrel shotgun blast to the heads of nearly everyone who has been trying to keep them down. I am a hardcore Fishbone freak from the beginning, but this CD rocks so hard my jaw dropped from the opening slam-groove and stayed dropped til the end of Angelo's over-the-top spoken work fiesta. This is the real Fishbone, telling like it is in no uncertain terms. On the first cut, guests include George Clinton, Buckethead and Brain!!! Freakin' incredible...
Not for weakhearts!

Under normal circumstances a 3 song ep might be considered
chicken nuggets but of course we're talking 'bout the red hot
mighty FISHBONE here! 'Friendliest...' is like a 5 course meal
and a doggy bag to go! Kinda like the human nervous system or is it intestines? After unraveling the many layers of music and poetry I wuz amazed that it reached all tha way to tha moon and back. In addition to Fishbone there is a wonderful familyhood of
artists that contribute to this funky little onion of an ep!
If the currently underachieving music industry has left you
disenchanted , give this a try - you will catch on!

WARNING: Contains free flowing funky jams,jazzy saxophone,hiphop flava and brain tweekin' spoken word poetry.

Has mind expanding capabilities and may cause
irreparable satisfaction!!

The bone does what the bone wants. Not since Chim Chim have the bone unleashed mad fury ala bone styley! Do I listen to it everyday? No. Do I listen to it as much as some of my other bone favorites? No. Am I stoked as hell to have it in my collection? OH YEAH!
dave

These are the tracks Hollywood (aka Disney) didn't want you to hear. While the EP as a stand alone product lacks the melodic songs fishbone can do so well, they were initially intended for "Psychotic Friends Nuttwerks" and censored by the label. What has made Fishbone one of my personal favorites has been their ability to make huge stylistic jumps within one 60 minute album and make it work. In this case, the whole of "psychotic friends" plus the first two tracks of this ep makes for another classic fishbone ablum. The 20 minute Dr. Madd Vibe Poetry jam is gravy and an excellent intro to Angelo Moore's poetry. So reserve judgement until you've listened to both this and pyschotic friends back to back. You'll appreciate both all the more.