“The Pressman” is one of the heavier tracks from Primus’ third album, Pork Soda, but it is not one of their most popular songs. It ranks in the 60s in terms of live performances and streams and Second Hang Songs records no official covers of it prior to the present. So I guess it’s a deep cut though given how niche Primus are, most of their songs are deep cuts to non-fans. They are not the kind of band that gets a lot of covers.
Mamaleek are the kind of band that would cover Primus, though. They are an experimental metal group from the Bay Area made up of mostly anonymous members, who fuse different genres together. A little bit like Primus though these guys are even more out there.
Primus is led by Les Claypool, one of the greatest bass guitarists in rock history so it is no surprise that many Primus tracks are dominated by prominent bass lines. The bassline of “The Pressman” is pretty simple for Claypool and the track basically veers from quiet sections where the bassline is prominent with Claypool murmuring over it to sections where the band goes metal. The song relies entirely on dynamics to succeed because it is two versions of the same riff over and over for five minutes.
Mamaleek keep this general structure but do some pretty weird things with it, as you might expect from an experimental metal band. The bass riff is still the heart of the song but, from the opening, there are new things in the mix. (Like maybe a train sample?) And whoever the lead singer is growls the lyrics like he’s in black metal band, rather than adhering to Claypool’s idiosyncratic delivery.
The louder sections are louder and the quieter sections are weirder, with distant saxophone in one section. Another section adds religious chanting, again buried in the mix. Instead of the guitar solo, there’s a brand new slow outro that feels completely disconnected aesthetically from the rest of the cover
Though it is very much recognizable as a Primus song, this cover is also fittingly weird: when covering a quirky band, why not be quirky yourselves?
