If Wikipedia has taught me anything, and it hasn’t, its that 99.9% of all of the information written there is totally, hideously and hilariously untrue. James Bond’s middle name isn’t Clarence, Steve McQueen didn’t have a fascination with koi carp, Barack Obama doesn’t hold any topiary trophies and The Great Wall of China I’m told, cannot even be seen from some parts of China, let alone from space.
You can read a little about the “wrapped-in-mystery-popsicle” that is Colourmusic there…
1 part Yorkshire man and 3 parts Oaklahomian, the fantastic Colourmusic, in a move that Sufjan Stevens would probably not quaff at, have based their first two EPs (Red and Yellow) and their whole musical ethos on Issac Newton’s theory of colour. It was no surprise then that their Debut LP f, monday, orange, february, venus, lunatic, 1 or 13, was an an amalgamation of both.
Its a concept that, with any other band could be pinned as a gimmick and with the information I’ve just given you its probable you are imagining heady prog rock tracks of 10 minutes or more, long rambling suites and diving changes of mood ala Pink Floyd. In fact what Colourmusic deliver instead are 3 minute intelligent shimmering and chunky pop songs.
Their sound on Orange rumbles along somewhere between the fuzziest of the Beta Band and the twinlkiest of The Kinks. The raucous Yes! and pounding Put in a Little Gas crank out all the louder for being placed brilliantly beside summery opener Motherfather and gorgeous meditative marcher Someday Speaks Loudly respectively. Founding songwriters Nick Turner and Ryan Hendrix’s often overtly sexual and super simplistic lyrics, sometimes even bordering on creepy, hold perhaps the record’s strongest hook. Though on a record full of 13 well crafted and recorded singles its a hard call to make.
Live, the band are a different beast all together. In the past the band would often turn themselves into art projects, they have been painted on stage by fans, had their clothes and hair cut off, performed as a family, in gym gear and even held a mock funeral for guitarist Turner who performed from heaven by way of a pre-recorded projection, wings and halo complete.
Since Orange the band’s sound and performance (dictated by their new colour Pink) has been honed and quickly mutated into a Sonic Youth meets the Stooges type winged gargoyle. Hendrix screaming vocals hiding under layers of beautiful thick fuzz and reverb, the bands all white jumpsuits siting shiny, amongst the still unbelievably sing-along-a-long-able noise.
The band are looking to release their second LP next year and with US support slots for the Flaming Lips and British Sea Power already under their belts it looks like 2010 could be the year to say Yes! to a well oiled song making noise machine… and quite possibly the loudest band I’ve ever seen.
The single Yes! is out today on Memphis Industries.
You can purchase it here.
You can purchase The Orange LP here.
You can visit their Myspace here.
jack
3 months ago
i love your machine