5 out of 5

Label: Capitol

Produced by: Dave Sardy

How have I not reviewed this yet?  I feel like this is the cd that gave birth to every other cd in my collection.  It was one of my first “sought after” used shop hunts – or the used section of Streetside Records, hyuck – that actually remained integral to my music identity, becoming a springboard for a whole bunch of all stars loosely tied to the band or just encouragements to explore more to find bands that straddled as many genre lines as SK did on this album.

Yes, on this album, for as much as I’ve gobbled up and adore everything they’ve released, the long pause between Fantastic and followup Obtainium had the group scrabbling a bit to refind their sound – a sound that had been adapted by many others between then and then – and when it become more settled on the excellent Gravity is the Enemy, ringleader Erik Sanko sidled a tad into some generic angry rock leanings.

But, ah, Fantastic.  The deep grooving bass and weird ass percussion sound – some of Dave Sardy’s most gorgeously raw and rich production – that march-step past you on opener Watch the Fat Man Swing are arresting; that SK pair this quirk with a devastating and harsh guitar sound and Sanko’s oddball imagery (and oh god more drums) set the sound far afield of anything you’ve heard.  Now or then.

Wide Open is more direct and violent, but it’s not just opening song bedazzling: The distorted jazzy ramble of Nod Off and the Jamiroquai funk of All the Things I’ve Lost follow, seemingly disparate genres brought together by the consistently deep production, and a general aggressiveness in the playing style and compositional nervyness; the album just doesn’t sit still: each song feels like an explosion of expression, and yet the band keeps the compositions tight, presenting the perfect balance of effuse and polish.

And if there was any doubt of the band’s willingness to just rock out, you have the fast and dirty Vomit Ascot at the midway point.  This swings into the short disc’s latter half, which has more of a jaunty vibe with Scratch and Big Teeth.

While later releases as Skeleton Key or under his own name would expose some of the weaknesses in Sanko’s lyrics, which fall back on occasionally cheesy or forced metaphors, the stripped down and direct vibe of Fantastic seems to apply to the writing style as well, sticking to central images per song that manage a good balance between weird and relatable.  This could be Sardy’s partial influence, the man pretty good at paring away excess for bands, but I think it was also a fortunate result of the particular lineup of players on the disc, a talented bunch who would each prove defining in other projects they worked on after this.  In other words, all of the excess talent made everyone bring their A-game, and prevented the album from becoming strictly a Sanko project.  This was a band at this point, and a force to be reckoned with.

Alas, despite winning a Grammy for wicked cool album art, featuring a superstar producer, and becoming an outline for the first version of Enon, who would later nab some fame, Skeleton Key never felt like they got their due.  I played this disc for countless people and was boggled that their eyes didn’t light up when exposed to what perceived as musical genius.  And, as mentioned, what’s amazing is that I still don’t feel like anyone’s quite replicated the honed, precise madness on this album.

But by now you know that I have the best taste possible in music, so I can only assume you’ll be scrabbling out to pick up this disc, and then encouraging Sanko to keep the ball rolling with more music so that we can hear bits and pieces of this magic in new permutations.