O.rang
Hit It! Records

Lee Harris met Paul Webb at school in Southend when they were eleven; when they were eighteen they started a band called Talk Talk with a couple of friends, which kept them busy for almost a decade. During that time Talk Talk journeyed from experiencing the trappings of pop stardom to expanding the outer limits of musical exploration.

ORANG began as a continuation of Paul and Lee's pursuit of sonic satisfaction; while still in Talk Talk they were honing their craft as it were, listening to Fela Kuti and Can records, nurturing their love of reggae, dub and experimental music. Paul still cites his first experience of African Headcharge as a revelation, "where the percussion talks, that's enough for me."

After the release of Laughing Stock by Talk Talk in 1992, they began construction on their studio The Slug, and upon its completion, all kinds of musicians and characters were invited to participate in their world of improvised bliss. All spun their own idiosyncrasies into ORANG's rich weave, Harris and Webb recording, playing, goading great performances. "People can express themselves freely here", says Paul. Lee continues, "There's no chords or structure before I edit, so after fifteen minutes of improvisation players go into a trance, they just fly. Sometimes you get a little team playing over a drum track and that will become the starting point for something else".

And so, the process of playing and recording provide Lee and Paul an abundance of source material to create the music that is ORANG. "What it is, is getting the essence of someone's playing and matching it with someone else's," explains Lee.

If that sounds like a rather piecemeal approach to the recording process, then the finished tracks could sound no more organic or whole. Their music spans continents, like a musical version of Koyaanisqatsi, but not one moment is out of place. "In ethnic music, you don1t know what they1re singing about, but you can feel it. There's no distraction."

ORANG bring into their work a healthy consciousness, based on a rock of dubby rhythms and tribal percussion (and yes, the percussion talks, in a million different languages), wrapped around in lush voices and tones, and suffused with a thousand beautiful melodies.

Generally distrustful of the biz since their Talk Talk days, ORANG are happy to maintain the willful independence so important to their being; their ability to exist outside of the pressures and hyperbole of the industry enables them to remain focused on their music.

Herd of Instinct is their debut album, it has received substantial amounts of press in the UK including raves from virtually every publication including The Wire, Melody Maker, The London Times and inclusion on the Wire's Top 100 records of the year in 1994 when it was originally released.

Perhaps the most apt description was applied by musicologist David Toop in his London Times review in which he wrote, "Be thankful that albums with the depth and diversity of Herd of Instinct can walk tall in a hostile environments- it suggests among other impossibilities, Van Morrison's Astral Weeks as recorded by Can in Kingston, Jamaica.

"Little Brother" is from the bands second album Fields and Waves while "Jalap" is lifted from the previously mentioned debut, Herd of Instinct.

last updated: 08/10/01
O.rang

Fields and Waves

AVAILABLE TRACKS
Little Brother
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Herd Of Instinct

AVAILABLE TRACKS
Jalap
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