The Bad Fractals new single ‘FreeRange’ is ajoyously manic ode to excess, a hymn to the feverish greed that drives us to over-produce everything and others. Have we f****d too much? Will this send us over the edge into ecstatic extinction? Or have just we got the f*****g blues…?
Produced by Youth and Bad Fractals, Free Range finds Bang Crosby ’s trademark maniacal vocals go off the scale, sounding like a speed addled roger rabbit seizing the means of production. “I wanted to sound like a machine that’s completely out of control” he says – “Like a factory churning out undigestible words for mass consumption.” Astral Oz’s infectious punk riffs are equally frantic, catchy and crazed; all the while maintaining a pop nuance. Underscoring the carnage rolls Fred Astray’s torrential drumming and a thunderous bassline from Fred Stitz. It all makes for a strangely catchy punk juggernaut, designed be consumed again and again.
Directed by acclaimed animator Monsta (Metalheadz/Life4land) and Bad Fractals, the video is a hilarious trip through the horrors of factory farming to the origins of the universe itself. It also acts as much needed trauma work, stemming from Bang Crosby’s childhood phobia of hard- boiled eggs! Originally conceived as a single image of copulating chickens, it rapidly evolved into a parody of the human race itself and its desperate desire to consume life, and everything in it.
However, concealed in the video is an even bigger question; is our universe a mass-produced hologram itself?
