by Andrew Garrison
I want to lead this off by saying, Orchestra of Spheres is not my type of music. Hell, it isn’t even close. In fact, I feel as if I am stretching the English language substantially by calling it “music”. We can chalk this up to me not “getting it” or perhaps being “too square” for the Spheres, which I would probably agree. However, I think I understand how/why some individuals would appreciate Orchestra of Spheres and their new album, Vibration Animal Sex Brain Music.
As you may have already surmised, 72 hours ago, I had never heard of Orchestra of Spheres. So I did some research, and what I found was actually, somehow, more outlandish than I had even conceptualized. This is taken from the band’s/label’s website. I would once again like to reiterate that I did not/could not, make this up:
Orchestra of Spheres’ second full-length album, Vibration Animal Sex Brain Music, is a surreal road-trip through a hyper primal, fuzzed-out, synth laden, garden of Eden. Recorded in Italy in September 2012, in the midst of an epic 70+ gig European tour, this album captures the band as a live, hot, dynamic unit … a futuristic bunga-bunga party band for 22nd century boom-boom cults!!
Another side note, I generally like to identify what instruments are making the sounds that I am hearing when reviewing an album, but considering an Orchestra of Spheres plays, “homemade instruments like the biscuit tin guitar, electric bass carillon and sexomouse marimba to create their cosmic dancing sound,” I am not even going to try.
The album leads off with “Aby” which I consider to be the most abrasive track on the entire album, which is definitely saying something. A very close second for the “Song That Hurt My Ears The Most” award is the second track, “Electric Company”. I generally try to make notes on each song, but for “Electric Company” I just found myself writing a series of five question marks.
“Numbers” is the first time I heard discernable vocals and is the most normal song on the album (not really saying a ton). It has the “futuristic bunga-bunga party” sound of course, but it isn’t too overwhelming and quite enjoyable. This album certainly has its moments of very cool sounds, like the intro to “Moro Con” but after the first 90 seconds they decided to add in some car alarm type sound to make the rest of the song damn near insufferable. In fact, all of “Kairo” is some pretty cool noise, mainly because it sounds like it belongs on an N64 game.
I was really close to saying that “Mind over Might” was my favorite song on the album, because for the 120 seconds, it is surprisingly really catchy. Powerful bass, and some clappy type noise with futuristic vocals start the song off really strong. But, after the first two minutes they decide to put the Sex in Vibration Animal Sex Brain Music (and perhaps some of the Animal, too) with what I can only describe as a remixed female orgasm for the remaining minute and a half. This is followed by the fast and heavy guitar-like trash-rock on “Smash Hit #1”.
The album cools off with “Bogan in the Forest”, which, from what I can gather, is what ballads will sound like in the year 2200. Musically, it actually sounds really, really, cool. It has all of the composition elements that you would anticipate in a current ballad, just preformed with a little more futuristic flare. Oh, that and all of the words are utter gibberish. Actually, I did not hear a single syllable that was remotely close to the English language.
Ultimately, its clear that this type of music isn’t for me. However, even as someone who would never consider listening to this if I didn’t have to write about it, there were definitely some parts that I actually really did enjoy. So, if you are on the more musically adventurous side, or think that you belong in the 22nd Century Boom-Boom cult, give it a listen.
Rating: ?¿/Ω
