I already posted some material by this German psychedelic rock/grunge band, that existed between 1993 and 1997, and will do so in the future. Why? Because I really like that stuff.
ORANGE mainly played in the Rhein Main area around Frankfurt a. M. and also did some festivals/open airs in that region and also in south Germany - to mixed responses. They baffled quite a lot of people with their unique sound/style mixture (grunge, free style improvisation, krautrock, psych-folk, psychedelic rock, minimalistic avantgarde music...). ORANGE built themselves a small follower fan base with their always surprising live gigs (not a great number of people, but it was ok for a start). No two concerts were the same, and so one never knew what to expect from the band.
ORANGE also once won the second prize at some kind of "battle of the bands" contest with some hundred bands competitioning in Mainz at the OPEN OHR FESTIVAL in the final round. The interview segment (track 6) is about that competition, where ORANGE played - of all things - a shortened (!) 20 minutes version of "Neil's Elevator".
This live collection here features the more experimental pieces of the band with the flashlight on ORANGE's most avantgarde project, the minimalistic track "Rockwork Orange", that followed an acid punk version of "Magic Spell" (read more about the history and the many variations of that song here).
This version of "Rockwork Orange" is a composite version from two different gigs, with the long middle section coming from the debut performance of "Rockwork Orange" from Frankfurt's "Dreikönigskeller". After 40 minutes the tape run out, while the song lasted for over 60 minutes. The story goes like this:
"In the 'Dreikönigskeller' we first played a normal set with some more or less simple rock songs and then wanted to end the gig with our minimalistic piece 'Rockwork Orange'. The original idea was to play the same riff over and over again until everybody in the audience left the room or the power was cut off by the club owner - however long that might take. But most of the people in the audience really got into us and were digging what we were doing - you can hear some ecstatic screams every 15 minutes or so from some guys in the audience - and the club owner also liked what we did and even contributed on the mixing desk adding spontaniously some effects. So it all ended that we played the same riff for over 60 minutes until we called it quitts... It was indeed a very special experience for both, audience and band. Very trance like and very far out." (Mike S. 2009)
"Rockwork Orange" was played live on view occasions, but never that long again and more often in a more 'traditional' way with the guitar doing some noise solo instead of monotoniously repeating the same riff over and over again.
"He Came To Me One Morning" was improvised on the spot and is a good example of the more free style jamming ORANGE.
"25 Ways" and "Yawning" are some kind of organized improvisations, more in song format.
More ORANGE stuff is still available for download.
Enjoy!
ORANGE - Industrial Acid Punk Rock (Live Bootleg 1994-98)
(mp3 zip, 6 tracks, 73 min, 99,6 MB, artwork for slimcase incl.)
1. 25 Ways - 4.38
2. Magic Spell - 4.38 ->
3. Rockwork Orange (Composite Version) - 44.49
4. Yawning - 8.44
5. He Came To Me One Morning (Jam) - 7.39
6. SWF 3 Radio Interview (incl. fragments of Neil's Elevator) - 1.49
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3 comments:
Hi Mike,
thankyouthankyouthankyou for the "Rockwork" post. I remember very well how it felt playing this sweet nothing that later was called "Rockwork Orange" for about 60 minutes, just because no one stopped the band. Interesting things happened: Half of the audience left the room when they had to realize that what began as a nice (and a little bit boring) rock concert switched into a neverending noise attack. A small group of visitors who couldn't still believe it came back after several minutes with pressed hand against their ears, left again and never came back.
The other half of the audience seemed to be fascinated, otherwise they wouldn't have beared until the bitter end.
Although there were absolutely no variations in what the band did on stage, the audience suddenly began to scream and did it again every 15minutes. Reasons? Maybe something like a critical mass in sound, energy or else...
While playing this endless nothing-happens-shit my emotions were constantly changing.
1. I felt dull and disorientated and had no connection to myself, the band and the audience
2. There was just an easy flow, to play always the same was pure relaxation
3. I felt like stuck inside a TV set. I had pictures in my mind of data highways and coloured wires like the aesthetics in George Lucas' THX 1183
The day after the gig, a friend called to talk about he concert. He told me he had an argument with someone who hated the last tune. My friend loved it because he felt the audience had been confrontated with a situation that made it impossible just to consume the music, so that they have to react or to leave.
Looking backwards, I think it was a good thing that our little experiment happened in a pop/rock context because no one was prepared.
If it would have happened in an avantgarde context, there would have been expectations like "ah, this evening something very strange will happen...".
Maybe this long "Rockwork" version has more to do with with early minimal music (La Monte Young in rock?) or the the work of Glenn Branca in the mid eighties, when he was performing his 5th sympony, than later versions that were more influenced by noise/sixties/krautrock.
It's a pity the 60 minutes version isn't complete, but better a "composite" version than no version at all.
Yours, Maxim Engl
Hi Maxim, you're very welcome.
Thanks for commenting.
Hi Mike,
another info: The owner of the club liked our experiment so much that he also turned on the stroboscope and later a mirrorball. Later he turned out the lights completely, so that the whole club was dark for 10 minutes.
Maybe he liked our minimal noise terror, because he was musician too. A year later, he lent me a CD of Arnold Schönbergs "Gurrelieder" and told me, that this copy was only given to musicians (he was a singer in the choir).
Again, Maxim
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