I recently read an interview with the Tindersticks' Stuart Staples where he cogently noted that Europeans outside of the UK and Ireland were in much less of a hurry to discover the 'next big thing' musically.
You can't make sweeping generalisations of course, but overall I would agree with his thinking. Having spent a lot of time in both Germany and the Netherlands, I also discovered knowledgeable music fans who took their time to absorb the music that moved them and were largely unimpressed by the young pretenders being force fed to them by the NME on any given week. Hell, the Dutch adored The Sound from the word go while the rest of us ignored them. In itself, that's reason enough to gain this writer's respect.
Perhaps inevitably, this laissez-faire attitude also affects the music that comes from the Netherlands and certainly if YORDAN ORCHESTRA'S new mini-LP (30 minutes exactly in duration) is anything to go by, they still have the best recreational drugs on the continent and use them wisely to assist in cross-pollinating styles most of us would catch a Caribbean cruise to avoid.
This is meant as a compliment, incidentally, for Jack Aleister's band (a renowned quintet who have previously opened for The Polyphonic Spree in the Netherlands) are talented guys with a penchant for taking risks. And, often against the odds, they make them work as 'Psych Introduxeon' (sic) rolls out its' sonic magic carpet. Involved opener 'Kap'n El, HansIG' gives you some idea of the chicanes the band are capable of riding out. Beginning chiming and melancholic with Aleister's lonely, hangdog vocal to the fore, it soon sets up a supple, psych-influenced groove, indulges a few Prog-Rock tendencies, adds some bells and gets truly psychotic. It's certainly different but also extremely cool.
The ensuing 'Faced You In a Neon Light' continues to show just how ambitious Yordan Orchestra are. Pitting aggressive guitar riffs and dubby bass playing with sudden jars of horns or flutes, it's nervy head music, but always in touch with melody and sometimes even linear pop of sorts, as the sorrowful, Bowie-ish ballad 'RMDK' goes ahead to prove. Well, at least until its' final section when Darth Vader appears to guest on lead vocals.
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It doesn't always work so well. 'Washington Z', especially, turns this writer off by being an overwrought dirge that no amount of shouty, theatrical singing will rescue. However, it's only a temporary aberration and soon banished by 'Marjolyne', which – with its' baroque cello, majestically distant horns and soft-focus mix – is another goodie which can again be considered 'pop', even if it's pop of the whimsical, Syd Barrett variety.
Aleister keeps you guessing all the way and 'Psych Introduxeon' ends with its' strangest track, 'T-Borne Egg'. Featuring drones, resonant bass drum booming like a depth charge, chimes and a skeletal tambourine, it's wintry and disconcerting, reminding me of one of the incidental ambient pieces from David Byrne's 'Songs from The Catherine Wheel' more than anything else.
Ultimately, 'Psych Introduxeon' really is a case of expecting the unexpected and going with it accordingly. To these ears, fragments of everyone from The Charlatans to Ozric Tentacles and Sonic Youth have flitted by within thirty possibility-packed minutes, but after a while you simply stop playing 'spot the influence' and enjoy. Yordan Orchestra make their own rules, yet usually convince however unlikely their sonic leaps of faith may be. With one or two reservations, 'Psych Introduxeon' suggests you should pull the ripcord and join hands with them for the plunge.
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