Never Enough Notes e-zine // reviews + interviews + music

Orchestra of Spheres are, by the sounds of things, a jovial, experimental band. Trying to describe their sound is difficult — similar artists that come to mind are Prince Rama, tUnE-yArDs, M.I.A., Sleigh Bells and Be Your Own Pet. If that sounds like a crazy mix then don’t worry; it all culminates to result in the exciting, powerful force that is their debut, Nonagonic Now.

The band hail from New Zealand, and their bandcamp page describes their sound as “psychedelic primary school disco”. On some songs, such as ‘There is No No’, these tags seem apt. This album truly belongs to the instruments, and you hear some very strange noises. According to their artist bio on Fire Records, “the biscuit tin guitar, electric bass carillon and sexomouse marimba all feature on ‘Nonagonic Now’”. Wow. Once you’ve read that, it’s like you suddenly have a musical checklist. I’m going to guess the biscuit tin guitar is somewhere on ‘Spontaneous Symmetry’.

Orchestra Of Spheres – Hypercube by All Tomorrows Parties

The expanse of sounds on Nonagonic Now just shows that Orchestra of Spheres won’t be running out of ideas anytime soon. However, this album could have benefitted from a narrower focus. On songs such as ‘Toadstone’ and ‘Spontaneous Symmetry’, there are too many instruments to keep track of, and it becomes a frantic, spacey-free-jazz mess. However when their sound works, it offers up choice cuts which sound a little different to other songs. ‘Isness’ is one of the shortest, most direct tracks. ‘Boltzmann Brain’ and ‘Eternal C of Darkness’ could be sister songs, in that they’re both vocal-heavy. For me, it’s those differences that make the album more compelling. Nonagonic Now is definitely a grower album, but given the sheer expanse of this record, that’s not a bad thing.

7/10

Orchestra of Spheres are playing a short run of UK dates in December:
06 December – The Victoria, Dalston
07 December – Scala, London (supporting Caribou)
09 – 11 December – ATP 2011, Minehead