In adidition to a fourth LP side not available on the CD edition, Beta-Lactam Ring's double vinyl edition of Audiosapien also comes with a bonus 12" billed as Earthmonkey vs. Nurse With Wound. Hanu @ Basecloud is a welcome companion to the album, and could even stand on its own quite well as a short LP. The record is introduced by the legendary Jimmy Carl Black of the Mothers of Invention, intoning his famous line which will be very familiar to Zappa fans: "Hi, I'm Jimmy Carl Black, I'm the Indian of the group, and you're listening to...Earthmonkey!" This auspicious introduction is sampled, spliced, chopped and poured like lumpy gravy over the rest of this sidelong track, a powerfully hallucinogenic slab of fierce, majestic psych-rock that phases all over the stereo channels. I'm guessing that Nurse With Wound's contribution lies in the incongruous vocal snippets and samples sprinkled liberally throughout these tracks, adding just the right amount of strangeness and complexity to the primitive Kraut jams. Side B is a different beast altogether, a Middle Eastern-textured psych excursion with a dark, shuffling beat overlaid with snaking funk guitars, horn bleats and hair-raising washes of surrealistic sound. It's a bit reminiscent of the soundtrack to Fantastic Planet, pulled through the other side of an hashish tent filled with ranting bedouins. This 12" is just as accomplished as Audiosapien, but with an intensity and focus that makes it even easier to return to.

Jonathan Dean