everything i say is a lie but i love you

A couple of Fringes ago I went to the Jade Monkey to see a new local band's debut performance. I had actually heard of Orsino Nation through mutual acquaintances and a shared interest in Spiral Dance, and I liked their samples on MySpace. Unfortunately the performance was an almost perfect example* of how a poor sound guy can absolutely wreck a band's performance. It was actually physically painful to listen to (and not because of the volume).

Anyway, they've played a few other places since (although I've had other commitments which meant I couldn't see them), and have now released their first EP: Picnic On A Whale.

This collection of five songs isn't bad at all. In fact I quite liked it, although it did take a number of attempts to fully appreciate it. My only problem is that through a number of songs Charger's music seemed to be directly competing with Yasmine's vocals. Either on their own would have been very good, but for some reason the mix didn't really gel with me as much as it probably should have. Yasmine's very breathy voice (reminiscent of Julee Cruise) is excellent for the more ethereal parts, but she seems to lack the power to project over the more strident parts. Again this may just be a personal taste, as I tend to favour the vocals rather than the music to carry the emotive effect of the song, and I feel a little less volume on the instruments would have produced a much more palatable mix. As it is, you can't help thinking that Yasmine is producing the backing for the instruments and that feels rather unnatural to me, but may well be more suitable for a dance club than a cabaret. Which is a pity since I think her voice and music might be better suited to cabaret. When they finally hit the right balance of instruments and vocals I think this duo is going to be rather powerful.

Anyway, with that minor quibble aside, the songs on this EP have a quite pleasing complexity. They aren't easy to penetrate when first listened to, but on repeated exposure they will grow on you and you will be rewarded by doing so. Which I think quite suits the band's stated ethos of supporting transcendence.

I think my favourite track is Moscow, although The Vampiress Song was what first attracted me to their music.

The EP is available from their website, and he songs can be listened to at http://www.myspace.com/orsinonation.

[I also will add that the EP's cover is rather attractive. Also, the EP was a purchase, not a comped copy, because I was interesting in hearing their music without it having been trashed by an incompetent sound engineer (even trashed, I thought it had enough potential to risk the purchase of the EP). <grin>]

* A perfect example of how a bad sound desk can wreck a band was Brillig's gig last week at Higher Ground. When the band feels that playing more would only be to their detriment, you know stuff is bad. When the sound desk can't even cope with a single guitar and singer (and the performer has to make multiple requests for more foldback), you know things are probably as bad as they can get.