As the dusty projector wheels clatter ever-onward, spooling out the twisted and intermittently brilliant musical movie documenting Mike Patton's post-Faith No More excursions, you'll wonder when the plot's going to completely fall apart, leading our hero to a life of serial degradation behind closed doors. There have been some relatively weak scheme twists in the last few sequences -- his painful collaboration with the X-Ecutioners among them -- but by and large, Patton has created enough fantastic filth to make John Waters and Ed Wood doff their caps in appreciation.

Aligning himself with Swedish soul crooner Kaada for Romances isn't an unprecedented move for the former FNM leader -- Kaada is a former tourmate, and member of Patton's Ipecac family -- but the fruits of their labor are likely to surprise even the most rigid Patton-o-phile. Far and away the most compelling, not to mention thoroughly satisfying, Patton collaboration since Lovage, Romances is a stunning slice of soul-noir, illuminated by Patton's gyrating vocal acrobatics and Kaada's ear for subtle nuance. It could well be the alternate soundtrack to any one of Sam Peckinpah's films, so graphic are its instrumental insinuations towards violence and morality. By utilizing Patton's voice solely as another instrument, Kaada has kept his bleak sonic palette relatively uncluttered; he never foists opinion or circumstance upon his listeners, instead forcing them to forge their own paths through the darkness.

Kaada has been one of the world's most criminally ignored talents for the past several years -- hard to believe, given the ease with which he changes direction, and subsequently mood, on Romances. Whether he's deftly twirling his fingers around "Viens, Les Gazons Sont Verts"' spooky spaghetti western cadence or poaching a sweet melody from Simon & Garfunkel on "Labsent", he's the very picture of subliminal cool. Though he's not the marquee draw here, Kaada's spectral vision of unrealized societies and jagged moon craters forms the bedrock upon which Patton adds his flights of vocal fancy, sounding at once like a wounded sparrow, a malfunctioning arpeggiator and the living embodiment of John Philip Sousa's sourest dreams. Theirs is music of fragility and hope, of utter darkness in overlit times, and of solemn promise in a world condemned by lies.

It may easiest to relate Romances in messianic terms, though in no way is that intended to imply that the album is divine in attitude or execution. Kaada is the creator, Patton is the decorator, and together, they've fashioned a gruesomely beautiful universe that misfits, milky-eyeds and malcontents alike would be proud to call home.