Featured Artist: Time Of Orchids

CD Title: Namesake Caution

Year: 2007

Record Label: Cuneiform Records

Style: Progressive

Review:

These New Yorkers abide by a unique approach to the progressive rock idiom.  With their inaugural album for this eminent prog-rock/jazz record label, they communicate a hodgepodge of emotive aspects, where vocalizations largely follow the time signature element among other aspects.  Established in 1999 amid three self-released albums and one on John Zorn’s Tzadik label, the quartet’s renegade stylizations are enamored by an overall study in contrasting hues and much more.

Featuring notions of solstice, coupled with ominously crafted and weighty barrages of sound, the band’s muse is acutely counterbalanced by the vocal quotient.  They adhere to melody while offsetting many of these pieces with King Crimson like fury via massive rhythmic underpinnings and sinuous pulses.  However, the production frequently takes on orchestral qualities, sans the fluff and sugary implications.  At times majestic and dream-laden, the artists morph an uncanny blend of blitzing crescendos with genteel characteristics and off-kilter metrics.  Then add a few choruses constructed upon expansive soundscapes to the mix and there have you have a group that projects a singular voice.  It’s a good thing of course, since many prog-rockers are merely content with churning out high-flying technical gymnastics, while often disregarding compositional form.  No doubt, this unit brings quite a bit to the proverbial table.  A top pick for 2007, regardless of genre or any semblance of rigid categorizations…

Record Label Website: http://www.cuneiformrecords.com

Artist's Website: http://www.timeoforchids.com

Reviewed by: Glenn Astarita

Click here for printer-friendly version of review.

Send this page to a friend.