SARCAST WHILE

Kayo Dot's little brother!

Time Of Orchids is one of my latest discoveries and while I wasn't blown away when I listened to them at first, it has certainly grown on me over time. Their music isn't something new on these grounds. It sounds like a combination of Thinking Plague's atmosphere, Kayo Dot's spastic / soft moments with Mew-like vocals and pop touches. If you're a fan of any of the mentioned band then you're in for a treat.

Like I said earlier, Time Of Orchids is like Kayo Dot's little brother. They aren't as abstract or as dynamic as Kayo Dot and many of the harsh and aggressive qualities that can be found on Kayo Dot are replaced here with more accessible and melodic pop moments (pop in the "easy to listen to" sense of the word). Heck! I wouldn't even mind calling this Avant-Pop!

The vocals on this album is one of the main attractions on their music. There are two vocalists in the band and two guest female vocalists are also present in the album. One of the vocalists sound very similar to Mew's high-pitched singer and the other sounds like Toby Driver when he's screaming, but most of the time they work together along with the female vocalists making this the "sweetest" part of their music. The music on this album, while being avant-garde it doesn't sound forced and it isn't too "out there" for others to enjoy. It's one of the lightest avant-prog bands I've come across with. There are many changes in themes in their music and they are quite dynamic within the parameters of their sound. There's a distinct post-rock feel to their music thanks to the guitars, but they aren't as simple and the band is very creative crafting the appropriate melodies with them (the same thing can be said about the vocal melodies).

If you like the idea of an Avant-Pop band then Time Of Orchids will be a great band to check out. Fans of Thinking Plague and (specially) kayo Dot will enjoy this band as well. Time Of Orchids, while being daedalian in nature, they have a great sense of melody that can be accessible for people that aren't really fan of this kind of music.

Almost 4 stars out of 5

This album to me is where the group really hit their stride. For this release the band took both the angular and melodic aspects of their sound and created a true, and incredibly underrated, masterpiece of truly progressive rock. Time of Orchids can be likened to other American avant- garde rock bands like Cheer-Accident and Kayo Dot in the sense that their music is as strangely catchy as it is complex.

The only weaker parts of this album are the short interlude tracks, every actual song on the disc is immaculately composed, filled with amazing drum/bass interaction and lush vocal harmonies. The songwriting and musicianship of all members make this a genuine 5-star album for me.

From the frantic 'Ours, Engendered' with it's manic screams and crazy fuzzed-out bass to the very pop/funk-influenced ending to penultimate track 'All We Ever Wish', the album takes a multitude of sudden time changes and dynamic shifts making it perhaps a difficult or confusing listen for most people used to more 'traditional' prog. There are plenty of moments of controlled chaos, 'Earned Over' being a good example, but the majority of Sarcast While is quite melodic, albeit it in an unconventional way.

Most of the tracks could probably be described as math-rock meets the more 'pop', easily- listenable end of RIO. Despite the obtuse nature of the music the album still feels emotionally resonant with me. It's quite hard to do this band justice in words, but to me Sarcast While is a classic in it's own right, and I couldn't recommend it highly enough to anyone looking for a new musical adventure filled with peaks and troughs, beauty and disorder.

Plants that Grow In Your Pants (Until they Drop)

I bet you didn't even know that Madonna's gonna be singing drums on our next album, did you? (Chuck Stern)

This is one of those releases that delights and horrifies your reviewer in equal measure. At their worst Time of Orchids sound like emo brats screaming themselves hoarse for candy - What is Emo/Screamo for pity's sake?, would it sound like shredders busking on the NY subway with a catherdral organ ? At their best they miraculously fuse overtly unrelated slivers of sonic jetsam into fleeting and transitory epiphanies that beget an astonishing and fragile beauty not dissimilar to a sonic take on the surrealists 'exquisite corpse' technique. But enough of the burned out stump that is the rock family tree. In these conservative times we don't require a tree surgeon, we apparently need Big Apple lumberjacks. On Sarcast While Rock is the under-age and unlicensed driver in a stolen Metal vehicle that collides head on with Forestry Commission HQ.

Beauty as wreckage (thankfully no metallic irony litters the crash site)

The reference points that I can vaguely detect here might include: Glenn Branca - Sonic Youth - Pixies - Wire - Psychic TV - XTC - Crimson - Thinking Plague - Dinosaur Jnr - Mercury Rev - Can - Kayo Dot

The tracks often threaten to disintegrate completely until shards of jagged beauty slice us unapologetically by way of wounding recompense. Other times we are assailed by a lobotomised funk from a landlocked Beach Boys as envisioned via a Burroughs cutup. A dislocated cold shoulder to cry on is never far from reach. Those of you who remember that unnerving corruption of the All Things Bright and Beautiful hymn from 'Planet of the Apes' will recognise the skew-whiff melodic compass throughout Sarcast While. At times they do overindulge with this conceit as if recoiling from any musical ideas that might be deemed (gulp) conventionally 'pretty'.

Like children we are but guests in an adult world and Time of Orchids are prescient enough to realise their formative dissent represents a ripeness that will perish upon appeasement. If a young Paddy McAloon had written for the Pixies this is what might have resulted.

It's no surprise that Chuck Stern's favourite author is Samuel Beckett as there is an acknowledged albeit grudging sadness at the heart of this music. They break up the pulse of 'rawk' as if imitating the palpitations/dysrhymia of a broken heart. Vladimir and Estrogen got tired of waiting and formed an electronic skiffle band and called it....

Tzadik Records is a record label based in New York City specialising in avant-garde and experimental music. The label was established by the eclectic composer and saxophonist John Zorn in 1995. Zorn is the executive producer of all Tzadik releases and is a not-for-profit, cooperative enterprise. It's unlikely most of us would ever have heard this music without Zorn's patronage so we should extend shed-loads of kudos to him for that.

Time of Orchids will either disappear into the shrilly indifferent ghetto of avant or finally succumb to the germ of a pop virus that stealthily swims their bloodstream. We can forgive them the odd lapse into gauche angst as they are clearly young uns, and after all suffering precedes immunity.

(Bugger, I just read they split up in 2008).

A very beguiling but tantalisingly elusive record that defies the usual types of categorisation and carries more than a hint of a truly original voice cut cruelly short.