Primus & the Chocolate Factory with the Fungi Ensemble

Primus are an acquired taste, but a taste worth acquiring. [Dec 2014, p.107]

Taken for what it is, Primus & The Chocolate Factory is a fantastically ridiculous release that should please fans of either [Primus or Willy Wonka].

While having their most celebrated drummer on hand adds an element of stability to what is a pretty far-out concept even for Primus, the addition of Bass and Dillon allows Primus to really push their sound to its creative limits, making Primus & the Chocolate Factory one of the band's oddest, yet most strangely compelling, releases to date.

Primus & the Chocolate Factory plays like one of Claypool’s many passion projects. It’s entitled to live by its own convoluted logic.

While this retains their characteristic strangeness, you could argue it isn't the best use of their considerable talents. [8 Nov 2014, p.54]

He and Alexander have also stayed mostly away from the slap-bass and funk drums that made Primus’ early hits so compelling, so don’t expect the usual extravagant workouts. Instead, this album is best viewed as the point where Claypool’s interests in film and music meet at a sort of psychedelic flashpoint.

It's all a little too eagerly oddball at times, but generally avoids the trapdoor marked Novelty. [Dec 2014, p.78]

Certain segments remain faithful to the original material while others are unrecognizable through veils of sawing bass, guitar clank, expansive percussion marches and a gang of 50-year-old dudes reliving their adolescence through music and busted guts. [Dec 2014, p.107]

As an experiment in radically rearranging existing music, this album is a massive success. As a listenable album, though, it falls a bit short.