The Stinking Badger of Java

The Stinking Badger of Java is more an anomaly, or a sensation, or possibly a freak of nature, when compared to a music group. Actually, it really is a loose collective (? la Elephant 6) of varied Australian music artists/songwriters/poets using a convoluted background filled with twists, transforms, and modifications, all honing and solidifying the band’s interesting feeling of songcraft and artwork. The group that could morph in to the Stinking Badger of Java was shaped in Melbourne, Australia, in 1991, as Fetishes, with the songwriting duo of Paul J. Narkiewicz (vocals, electric guitar, piano, bass, percussion) and Brigitte Corbett (vocals, bass, electric guitar, percussion, piano). They documented and released two lo-fi cassette EPs (1993’s self-funded Ghost from the Flea and 1996’s Herbicide or Pesticide on Yippie Bean) and a compilation record (Incestuous, in 1994) under this deal with with many other bandmembers. The Stinking Badger of Java metamorphosis happened in 1996. The experimental and traditional affects of Narkiewicz and Corbett led these to ultimately add classically educated virtuoso Alessandro Servadei (French horn, melodica, percussion, mellophonium, contrabass harmonica, piano) and cellist Susannah Provan, aswell as the spoken phrase performer Thomas Bollinger (who also contributes electric guitar, drums, percussion, and body organ). They released the cassette EP As well Intelligent on Yippie Bean in 1997, as well as the Compact disc/video one “Chronikl Sin” (Yippie Bean, 1998), before discovering their debut full-length, WHETHER IT’S Fetishes You’re After…, also on Yippie Bean (and M&E in the U.K.) in 1998. The record may be the culmination of eight many years of the Corbett/Narkiewicz songwriting relationship, and that knowledge is apparent in the assuredly skewed music. With affects that range between pop/rock and roll and folk to jazz and traditional (or, as the music group themselves place it, “from Patsy Biscoe to Mr. Bungle”), and with the band often experimenting with brand-new sounds and musical instruments, the songs range between loopy to breathtaking, significant to tongue-in-cheek, but are often exceptional and exclusive.