The Satanic Puppeteer Orchestra

By: Alibastard | in: Music |

In a truly overzealous gesture of elevating the somewhat strange to the wholly ridiculous, Professor B. Miller has completed a 4 disc, mega-release of his minimalist, robot-lead compositions under the name Satanic Puppeteer Orchestra. Combining Adult Swim style set-ups (with songs like Cheap Trapeze Lessons, I Stole Your Daddies Time Machine and Haunted Rental Car), concept album consistency (um, the entire thing is sung by a robot) and enough musical range to keep things actually interesting, the new release conjures roughly 20 + years of absurdity and satire the likes of which Spinal Tap, Blues Brothers, They Might Be Giants and Devo are just a small reference.

Satanic Puppeteer Orchestra - Remax

With 43 original songs and then an entire 4th disc devoted to live tracks, the laundry list of pop culture comparisons seems pretty appropriate, though appeal is rather speedy even if you don’t think Oingo Boingo or Chris Guest. What could be an exercise in the purely tedious becomes a kind of half-smirk guessing game between the audience and the Professor.

Satanic Puppeteer Orchestra - The Breakdancing Salesman

The act of listening begs the question: what the hell are you gonna do next? 43 songs with an a-harmonic machine running lyrics is a hard act to keep interesting. Luckily, the subject matter of these brief songs alternate as well, from the grandiose heights of genre to the mundane events of daily living (robot SPO-20 dolefully detailing his raw deal with real estate repossession, Remax style).

Satanic Puppeteer Orchestra - Still Rock and Roll to Me

And where perhaps there would be some craving for a deeper substance nestled obscurely perhaps in these broad strokes of comic sci-fi jokesterdom, the CD box set is full of mix CD dream additions, mood changes, cartoonish asides and genuine rock outs.

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Posted on July 30, 2007