Ergo Phizmiz (No 814)

Hometown: London. The lineup: Ergo Phizmiz (vocals, music). The background: Listening to Ergo Phizmiz, we're torn between declaring him a genius and wondering aloud, as per Greil Marcus's famous opening line of his Rolling Stone review of Bob Dylan's 1970 album Self Portrait, "What is this shit?" Listening to the bewildering array of stuff he's recorded, from DIY krautronica and collages of radio static to jaunty novelty ditties that make Ringo's songs for the Beatles sound like Stockhausen, we can't decide whether he's the new Viv Stanshall, a young Eno, a British Zappa, or a replacement for Frank Sidebottom (RIP) . Is he an amateur satirist and Dada soundscaper, a masterful mash-up artist, a plunderphonics whizzkid, or just a clever hoaxer with too much time on his hands who ought to go and get a proper job? He's probably some, if not all, of the above. Phizmiz (whose family may or may not have changed their name after the war from Mxyzptlk ) has been around for a while (he even gets a namecheck in John Peel's autobiography) but we're writing about him now because he's about to release his first album of "proper" self-penned songs. We're listening to some of them now on his MySpace because the promo CD has yet to arrive (Phizmiz would probably rationalise this in subversive art-threat terms, but it's actually because the post is late). It is hard to square the composer of whimsical accordion singalong Parrot in the Pie, or the mordant, maudlin The Dapper Transvestite, which sounds like Kate Bush's Army Dreamers played by drunk, depressed gypsies, or the jumble of toyshop whistles and party hooters that is Food & War, or Balkan Waltz Hotel, with the wayward industrial electronica of one of his other works that we found on the internet, say, the Faust Cycle, which vaguely resembles Aphex Twin locked in the BBC Radiophonic Workshop with a bunch of demented infants. Nor does it sound much like his acoustic recreation of the whole of the Prodigy's Music for the Jilted Generation . He does this a lot, does Phizmiz. He once recorded a version of the Velvet Underground's second album using homemade instruments, while his Arff & Beef set saw latter-day R&B - Destiny's Child, Kelis, Missy Elliott – deconstructed (Phizmized) beyond all recognition. No cow – whether it's Radiohead or Kylie - is too sacred, even if the cow has every reason to be scared. He's apparently compiled albums of field recordings, composed movie soundtracks, written rock comedies, done religious music ... Did you know that he once assembled a three-hour sample-fest that comprised a cross-section of the music of the last millennium? Oh, and he's just finished an opera called The Mourning Show. It's about Chris Evans. Course it is. The buzz: "Thanks for your beautiful, compelling, funny, crazy stuff" – Matt Groening. The truth: He's more Chris Morris than Chris Evans (or Chris Moyles) but we reserve judgement on his greatness. Until that bleedin' postman arrives. Most likely to: Live in a yellow submarine. Least likely to: Paint the town red. What to buy: The first album of songs by Ergo Phizmiz, Things to Do and Make, is released by Care In The Community on 2 August. File next to: Momus, Frank Zappa, Ariel Pink, Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band. Links: myspace.com/ergophizmiz Tomorrow's new band: Tennis.