After their brilliantly bonkers debut album Tope’s Sphere (review here), Orange Clocks have put out a superb follow-up with Metamorphic. Fantastically proggy/spacey/ethereal/hypnotic also inventive and tight.
Orange Clocks should be going places after this album. For old gits like me it’s a journey back to when the likes of Hawkwind, Gong, Steve Hillage et al were at their peak. For the “younger generation” who may not be familiar with those halcyon days – Orange Clocks bring a fresh perspective to the genre. Essential listening.
Space Witch (the opener) summarises what the Clocks are about on Metamporphic. A throbbing song thumping along with a spaced-out trippy feel to it and some fine guitar which reminds your reviewer of the great Bill Nelson.
That merges in to Eye of Psybin, which is in a similar vein though with a more mellow vibe going on. Miles Away is different again taking the mellow down a notch or two with a sweeping Floydesque riff tricking the listening in to thinking it’s a bit of a traditional mellow ballad style (which is sort of it) until the last couple of minutes when things switch back up to that marvellous spacey freak out. Excellent.
Let Me Breath is next. A nice trippy groove throughout. Have a look/listen. Here’s the video:
Floating Temple takes the proggy trippiness to another level. Pulsating and hypnotic. Think Gong al-la Angel’s Egg or You. Then Ammonite is a short, sharp blast of pulsing guitars with a big finish.
The final track – Noggy Pop is where Orange Clocks go wild! An almost half hour long journey through everything there and back again. The first few minutes give the pulsing, throbbing spacey rocking stuff before it stretches out in to a “smorgasbord” of all things spacey/proggy. Synths, guitars, hypnotic bass and drums, swirly bits, changes of pace. The sort of song for which one dons the headphones and drifts off to who knows where.
With first Tope’s Sphere and now Metamorphic, Orange Clocks surely can’t remain one of prog’s “best kept secrets” for long.
>> GET YOUR COPY OF METAMORPHIC BY ORANGE CLOCKS HERE <<
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Footnote: The Raider, Iona, Sacred Alien and Flight 19 CDs arrived in a flurry over the last few days. So there’s plenty of old New Wave of British Heavy Metal to come when I’ve got my ears around them all.
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