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The
problem of genre is an age old one, one growing increasingly more
apparent in the world of popular music. In the last year, it seems
as if MTV has indeed found its next grunge: Indie. On the other
end of the spectrum, the bulk of mainstream hip-hop has become overrun
with thuggish clowns muttering catch phrases like "What" ad nauseum.
The Root of Orchis are old enough to remember when terms like indie
and hip-hop actually meant something, but they're not bitter. They're
beyond it.
Since their inception in 1998, amidst the burgeoning San Diego music
scene (home to groups like the Black Heart Procession, Tristeza, The
Album Leaf and Pinback), the band has carefully shaped and built a
distinctive sound structured around heavy beats, effective samples,
and the melodically-compelling exchange between two bassists.
Early on the group may have tipped their hat to the all-instrumental,
neo-jazz coming from Chicago, but the Roots of Orchis have completely
staked their own significant territory in the realm of experimental,
instrumental music. If adding turntables and scratching to the mix
was a nod to forward-thinking DJ culture, then chiming in with less-traditional
instruments like the melodica gave solid props to the spacey history
of dub reggae.
Needless to say, the result is an ethereal combination of the music
that not only moves them, but also anyone who knows that feeling a
song is as important as hearing it.
Now based in San Francisco, the quartet are releasing their fourth
full-length. A special two-disc album, Crooked Ceilings has eleven
original new tracks and eight unique remixes by the band's various
friends and musical comrades (including the Black Heart Procession's
Pall Jenkins and Controller 7, who has produced Sage Francis, Sole
and Deep Puddle Dynamics).
For the last six years, the band has continued to elaborate on an
intensely gripping musical landscape, one which really isn't confined
or constructed by genre. So, instead of giving in to the temptation
to categorize, we invite you simply to listen.
-Steven Leckart, 2004