|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CD
|
|
PICI 040CD
|
Blue Orchids created a singular sound of intellectualized psychedelia on their first 7" singles, The Flood (1980) and Work (1981), and despite their historically infrequent outings -- the band has released more new music in the last six years than in the whole of the thirty-five years prior to it -- the subtle originality of their sound permeates each of their releases, down primarily to original member Martin Bramah's singular vision. Yet each new release presents subtly directed changes to their work. Once at the brink of possible pop stardom that Bramah tossed aside by refusing to move down south to London -- which he did a few months later anyhow! -- his music has always had a rather perverse commerciality. Relative to the size of their respective catalogs, Bramah's songs have been covered by credible artists roughly as often as those by his first band, The Fall. The hazy oddness and off-kilter sound of Blue Orchids' debut LP, The Greatest Hit (Money Mountain) (1982), did not offset its popularity of the cognoscenti. It sold over 15,000 copies and saw its songs covered by the likes of Aztec Camera and pioneering American indie bands such as Slovenly, Dustdevils, and Fish & Roses, and it's still a cult classic today. The album recalls Blue Orchids' classic debut more than any other chapter of Bramah's catalog -- just take a look at the song titles! The lyrics were written in a freer verse than typical song lyrics allow, the music written later. John Paul Moran -- Bramah's longest-serving musical partner -- evokes the same eerie atmosphere from his keyboards as Una Baines did years before, with new member Tansy McNally (ukulele) and rhythm section Vincent Hunt (bass) and Howard Jones (drums) holding it all together. Angus Tempus Memoir is Bramah's most beguiling work in decades Forty years on, Martin Bramah's Blue Orchids revisit the darker side of The Money Mountain in their most captivating work since their 1982 debut album.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP
|
|
PICI 040LP
|
LP version. Blue Orchids created a singular sound of intellectualized psychedelia on their first 7" singles, The Flood (1980) and Work (1981), and despite their historically infrequent outings -- the band has released more new music in the last six years than in the whole of the thirty-five years prior to it -- the subtle originality of their sound permeates each of their releases, down primarily to original member Martin Bramah's singular vision. Yet each new release presents subtly directed changes to their work. Once at the brink of possible pop stardom that Bramah tossed aside by refusing to move down south to London -- which he did a few months later anyhow! -- his music has always had a rather perverse commerciality. Relative to the size of their respective catalogs, Bramah's songs have been covered by credible artists roughly as often as those by his first band, The Fall. The hazy oddness and off-kilter sound of Blue Orchids' debut LP, The Greatest Hit (Money Mountain) (1982), did not offset its popularity of the cognoscenti. It sold over 15,000 copies and saw its songs covered by the likes of Aztec Camera and pioneering American indie bands such as Slovenly, Dustdevils, and Fish & Roses, and it's still a cult classic today. The album recalls Blue Orchids' classic debut more than any other chapter of Bramah's catalog -- just take a look at the song titles! The lyrics were written in a freer verse than typical song lyrics allow, the music written later. John Paul Moran -- Bramah's longest-serving musical partner -- evokes the same eerie atmosphere from his keyboards as Una Baines did years before, with new member Tansy McNally (ukulele) and rhythm section Vincent Hunt (bass) and Howard Jones (drums) holding it all together. Angus Tempus Memoir is Bramah's most beguiling work in decades Forty years on, Martin Bramah's Blue Orchids revisit the darker side of The Money Mountain in their most captivating work since their 1982 debut album.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
CD
|
|
PICI 022CD
|
While recording 2018's Righteous Harmony Fist (PICI 015CD/LP), Blue Orchids messed about with a few covers of insanely obscure low-fi garage/psych tunes. Few casual aficionados of rock music will know more than a song or two from this set -- the likes of The Penny Saints and The Aardvarks and their kin not exactly being household names. In fact, of the seven '60s acts with songs covered here, none lasted more than a handful of singles. Complementing those songs are covers of songs by two more recent groups. The swirling keyboards of The Growlers' "Pavement And The Boot" is distilled back to its fundamental garage essence, while Crystal Stilts' two-minute original, "Love Is A Wave", is slowed down and channeled back to the melodic pop wonder lingering beneath its Reid Brothers buzzsaw and pays respect to the band, who'd themselves covered Blue Orchids' "Low Profile" a few years back. Of special interest will be "Addicted To The Day", the album's key song, the words for which were recently found in a 1977 notebook of Bramah's which at Mark E. Smith had borrowed and then scribbled down the "poem" in thanks, to which Bramah added music. The haunting lines, "How could I have suspected my abysmal future/ A doom which has haunted me/ And turned me into a wreck and a parody", are the centerpiece of the album, a concept compiled of bits and pieces of esoteric tunes, telling a tale of Faustian doom in a pact with forces of evil.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP
|
|
PICI 022LP
|
LP version. While recording 2018's Righteous Harmony Fist (PICI 015CD/LP), Blue Orchids messed about with a few covers of insanely obscure low-fi garage/psych tunes. Few casual aficionados of rock music will know more than a song or two from this set -- the likes of The Penny Saints and The Aardvarks and their kin not exactly being household names. In fact, of the seven '60s acts with songs covered here, none lasted more than a handful of singles. Complementing those songs are covers of songs by two more recent groups. The swirling keyboards of The Growlers' "Pavement And The Boot" is distilled back to its fundamental garage essence, while Crystal Stilts' two-minute original, "Love Is A Wave", is slowed down and channeled back to the melodic pop wonder lingering beneath its Reid Brothers buzzsaw and pays respect to the band, who'd themselves covered Blue Orchids' "Low Profile" a few years back. Of special interest will be "Addicted To The Day", the album's key song, the words for which were recently found in a 1977 notebook of Bramah's which at Mark E. Smith had borrowed and then scribbled down the "poem" in thanks, to which Bramah added music. The haunting lines, "How could I have suspected my abysmal future/ A doom which has haunted me/ And turned me into a wreck and a parody", are the centerpiece of the album, a concept compiled of bits and pieces of esoteric tunes, telling a tale of Faustian doom in a pact with forces of evil.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
CD
|
|
PICI 015CD
|
Martin Bramah and his Blue Orchids bandmates have never been prolific, with albums appearing sparingly. Righteous Harmony Fist is a surprise on the heels of The Once And Future Thing (2015) and Factory Star's Enter Castle Perilous (2011); they'll soon return to the studio to record yet another. However those songs may or may not look back, the present and future beckon. "If They Ever Lay A Finger On Us", a rare cover originally written by Manchester combo Bingo Harry, whose debut album will arrive in coming months, is a hymn for the righteous weary set in an age of turmoil, whereas "Deep State" turns modern political paranoia on its heels, with its comparison of flawed societal thinking to a highly troubled kid: "Tiny said 'the Earth is flat'/Hit his teacher with a cricket bat/Now he hides in the woods and eats his meat raw/While teacher sucks her soup through a drinking straw." "Beached" is a classic paranoid rant in the style of "Work"; built-up aggression and intensity, a joyous purge in the light of doom, and no Blue Orchids record would be complete without a sort of saga, in this case the mysterious "Lancelot's Last Word". The highlights of the album may be "The Lad That Time Forgot", which latches The Greatest Hit (Money Mountain) (1982)'s melancholy to more assured backing, or "Incandescent Artillery", a soaring anthem built around John Paul Moran's organ line. Blue Orchids was formed by Martin Bramah and Una Baines, both past members of The Fall.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP
|
|
PICI 015LP
|
LP version. Martin Bramah and his Blue Orchids bandmates have never been prolific, with albums appearing sparingly. Righteous Harmony Fist is a surprise on the heels of The Once And Future Thing (2015) and Factory Star's Enter Castle Perilous (2011); they'll soon return to the studio to record yet another. However those songs may or may not look back, the present and future beckon. "If They Ever Lay A Finger On Us", a rare cover originally written by Manchester combo Bingo Harry, whose debut album will arrive in coming months, is a hymn for the righteous weary set in an age of turmoil, whereas "Deep State" turns modern political paranoia on its heels, with its comparison of flawed societal thinking to a highly troubled kid: "Tiny said 'the Earth is flat'/Hit his teacher with a cricket bat/Now he hides in the woods and eats his meat raw/While teacher sucks her soup through a drinking straw." "Beached" is a classic paranoid rant in the style of "Work"; built-up aggression and intensity, a joyous purge in the light of doom, and no Blue Orchids record would be complete without a sort of saga, in this case the mysterious "Lancelot's Last Word". The highlights of the album may be "The Lad That Time Forgot", which latches The Greatest Hit (Money Mountain) (1982)'s melancholy to more assured backing, or "Incandescent Artillery", a soaring anthem built around John Paul Moran's organ line. Blue Orchids was formed by Martin Bramah and Una Baines, both past members of The Fall.
|
|
|
|