01	His Name Is NNNNNN						20:36
	02	Always Merry And Bright						02:36
	03	His Name Is Clone						04:14
	04	Vicious Cruiser						01:53
	05	NNNNNN Hibatchi Salesman, Basketball Star						01:09
	06	Bobby-O-Bobby						09:25
	07	Increasingly Pathetic						03:36
	08	Dracula Humster						06:04
	09	Mr. Z. Finishes Off NNNNNN						01:23
	10	Kazoo						06:55
	11	Disfinished Symphony						09:16
	12	The Crown Jewel						03:03

Makkiwhipdies - His Name Is NNNNNN
Artist: Makkiwhipdies
Title: His Name Is NNNNNN
Label: Garkopelian Delight
Length(s): 70 minutes
Year(s) of release: 1996
Month of review: 11/1997

Line up
Cosgrove - keyboards, guitars, mandolin, saxaphones
Mourad - bass, taurus pedals, glockenspiel, flugelhorn
Arnold - drums, rainstick, tubular bells, bongos
Lamonia - drums, tympani, concert cymbals, marimba
Storque - vocals, cor anglais, theremin, fipe

Tracks
1) His Name Is NNNNNNN 20.36
2) Always Merry And Bright 2.37
3) His Name Is Clone 4.14
4) Vicious Cruiser 1.53
5) NNNNNN Hibachi Salesman, Basketball Star 1.10
6) Bobby-o-Bobby 9.25
7) Increasingly Pathetic 3.37
8) Dracula Hamster 6.04
9) Mr. Z Finishes Off NNNNNN 1.23
10) Kazoo 6.56
11) Disfinished Symphony 9.16
12) The Crown Jewel 3.04

Summary
The name is as idiotic as they come but an advertisement on USEnet called the band to my attention. Since they were willing to part with a review copy here's the story:
The music
as the name, this is a thoroughly peculiar outfit. The first (title) track starts out with lots of bass and after an a very nice anthemic melodic part we are interrupted by "we love cheese" and all kinds of nonsense. Then the music continues more or less and again the basswork stands on the fore. After a while it is accompanied by a frolic melody and there are more of these merry melodies interjected into this rather fragmented track with parts sung in Arabic and somebody singing Christmas carols. One of the nicer bombastic parts reminds me a lot of the track Bang! by Frankie Goes to Hollywood (if that says anything). Rather experimental, but the "song" has its moments.
The next one is an instrumental ditty with mostly acoustic instruments and varied (but automatic sounding) percussion.

His Name Is Clone also starts out acoustically paired with heavy drums. As the opening track this is a rather fragmented track with various interludes and mezzo's and in that sense, the song is a clone of the first track, with vaguely Greek sounding acoustics and of course much more.

During Vicious Cruiser, like many of the shorter tracks, there is a little time to switch between fragments and as such the track sounds whole and can be compared to the second track.

NNNNNN Hibachi Salesman, Basketball Star is again wacky with a nice groove and idiotic lyrics (the title).

During Bobby-O-Bobby some of the themes of the titletrack reoccur (played a little differently though, mandolin with double bass drum?). During this track however some attention is given to tension building, but of course before the climax is reached we get another of those happy melodies and there are even some classical samples involved.

The dark Increasingly Pathetic, the off-beat Dracula Hamster with many a break and the melody of which reminds me in some way of Jan Hammer's work for television, got forth on the same strange footing. Kazoo (with somebody actually playing one, but not surprisingly they do not mention who) is quite melodic and continuous however. Disfinished Symphony opens with pinball sounds and other computer sounds and really has something classical to it (structurally) as well as crying babies, ringing telephones and what have you. It also contains some pointers to Carmina Burana. The Crown Jewel closes the album. The track contains mostly piano and some applause at the end after which we get a small bombastic afterbirth.

Conclusion
A rather wacky album that sounds a little too fragmented for my tastes, but it contains some really nice melodies and interesting instruments and for instance very prominent and low bass work. The music can best be compared to modern television (or for those in want of something more cultural, Monty Python): you get switched from scene to scene and later on back again, so the musical fragments disappear and reappear. I'm afraid this is all I can say about it and you might say that I'm out of my depth with this one, but I have to admit liking it. It's just not something that I will often play again (except to show off as something peculiar).
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c Jurriaan Hage