Rymes With Orange

Trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith with Orange Wave Electric, an all-star electric band including guitarists Nels Cline, Brandon Ross and Lamar Smith; bassists Bill Laswell and Melvin Gibbs; electronic musician Hardedge; percussionist Mauro Refosco; and drummer Pheeroan akLaff.

Electric Orange is a german krautrock band, mainly based on two masterminds Dirk Jan Müller (keys) and Dirk Bittner (guitar). Up to now both musicians had uncounted collaborations during their development and produced a huge amount of material on MC, Vinyl and CD-R. Besides some temporary flirts with house/techno elements the band actually delivers modern trippy krautrock adapted music, where Tom Rückwald handles the bass guitar since the year 2000. The band offer an irresistible blend of hypnotic and tribal beats, soaring organ and synths, spacey guitars, recitatives, samples as well as analogue effects. Hereby they are keen on experimenting with all sorts of rare, obscure and vintage instruments…

A somewhat late-in-the-day attempt at psychedelic pop, this album does have a few advantages, mostly in the way it's executed - for starters, it isn't as wimpy as a lot of U.K. psychedelic pop was during this period; Orange Bicycle plays hard and generates a fairly hard sound, despite their pop orientation, the wattage turned up fairly high and the vocals pretty intense. The album is top-heavy with outside songwriting, Elton John, Bob Dylan, and Denny Laine all playing prominent roles as composers, with Laine giving the group perhaps their best moment with his "Say You Don't Mind", where they even sound a little bit like the original (Roy Wood-era) Electric Light Orchestra.

Second album from 1974 is more of the same but slightly more aggressive vocally, particularly on title track 'No One Left But Me' and with more guitar exhibitionism on 'Hungary Man'. 'Dream' is a pleasant instrumental. 'The Gate' provides a 10-minute stunning finale much in the West Coast-style. Excellent guitar-driven sound all over the album with a melodic psych/prog/rock feel. Occasional use of piano and acoustic guitars make for a varied sound. Lots of loud guitars with great solos. Comprehensive booklet with unseen photos. Digitally remastered.

London, England's ORANGE GOBLIN has completed work on its new album, "The Wolf Bites Back", for a June release via Candlelight/Spinefarm. The nine-song disc was recorded at Orgone Studios with producer Jaime Gomez Arellano (GHOST, GRAVE PLEASURES, PARADISE LOST, CATHEDRAL).

Originally recorded in Scotland in 1971, this album never saw a release until 1991 on the same German label that gave us the first German Oak album. This is some very good early 70’s psych/hard rock somewhat in the Budgie vein though much sludgier. Unfortunately not much seems to be known about this group. One track is over 10 minutes, the other five clock in around 5 to 6 minutes. Obscure gem that will appeal to most lovers of early 70’s rock.

Orange Goblin will release their new album Rough & Ready, Live & Loud to mark their 25th anniversary. “We wanted to give something to the fans and think that a raw live album is a great representation of what Orange Goblin is all about. Captured live at various shows between 2016 and 2019, this release is a definitive collection of songs from our entire catalogue. With no live shows to go to, Rough & Ready, Live & Loud gives the listeners an opportunity to experience Orange Goblin in their own home, preferably with a lot of cold beers and shots!”

The Cathedral of Seville is a gigantic building even by today's standards - in 1401, the city's ecclesiastical superiors decided to build a huge church in place of the former mosque, which future generations would still marvel at, and is one of the largest churches in the world. From the former mosque, the magnificent tower "La Giralda" remains, as well as the courtyard planted with orange trees, which also gives the name to the new CD by The Royal Wind Music. The flute consort, consisting of 11 recorders of all sizes, takes the listener on a walk around and into the cathedral and lets Renaissance works created for this place sound at each station.