Album Review: Wild Orchid Children - ... Are Alexander Supertramp

Hurtling out of the underground Seattle scene and falling straight into the limelight, Wild Orchid Children’s debut LP ‘... Are Alexander Supertramp’ is set to shake things up a bit. In fact it doesn’t just shake things up, it totally blows your mind!

Opening with the aptly named ‘We Are Alexander Supertramp’, the track is deceptively slow paced and a little non-descript to start with; it really is a misleading opener; you’re left with no idea as to how the rest of the album is going to go.

In no time at all however, the 18 minute+ trip-hop marathon ‘Black Shiny FBI Shoes’ kicks in and you are left completely mesmerised. A collection of some wild guitar riffing, tribal drum pounding and some frantic singing, the song culminates into something that people will either love or hate. The waves of heavy riffs juxtaposed by some pretty jazzy compositional segments is so imaginative and so unexpected, you won’t know what’s hit you.

The album ploughs on like some kind of funk-hungry behemoth, following the same formula as before throughout tracks like ‘Peyote Coyote’, ‘Lazers In The Jungle’ and ‘Martha Washington Goes To War’. Every aspect of every song just exudes a sense of intensity and energy so many bands lack nowadays. Its unrelenting power just takes over and you just find yourself right in the groove; a guitar solo here some more chanting there, you just can’t escape it!

You might disagree with me on this, but whenever I hear this album it just makes me think of bands like The Music, The Mars Volta and even on some occasions Rage Against The Machine. Kirk Huffman’s vocals are clearly a force of nature but on some occasions, the lyrics are somewhat lost in the thick of it. To me, it doesn’t take anything away from the experience at all, but I can imagine some may find it frustrating.

The album continues with the same feel and ends with ‘Where The Mexican Boys Go’ and ‘Tree Of Knowledge’; a couple more obscure yet soulful examples of the bands broad vision of what music should be like.

The use of various vocal effects and classic Hammond Organ-esque parts give a real retro feel to these songs however the creative use of the vocals and other random instruments bring them right back to 2010.

It’s plainly obvious why these guys have such a good following back in the US, what you see is what you get; a group of insanely talented individuals that have a great sense imagination. As Wild Orchid Children have created the craziest fusion of psychedelic funk-rock, heavy-blues with a sprinkle of hip-hop and pretty much anything else you can think of.

It’s wild, it’s mental, it’s loud and it’s exciting; it’s like nothing you’ve heard before!

4/5

‘... Are Alexander Supertramp’ by Wild Orchid Children is released on November 9th through Equal Vision Records.

Wild Orchid Children on MySpace

Sandeep Dawett