Orthrelm preview
Orthrelm
Beat Kitchen, Chicago
Friday, March 10, 2006
Under different circumstances, I could have possibly maybe but not likely loved Orthrelm. Under different circumstances I may have doled encouragement to all and said “Just give them a chance.” Unfortunately for myself, Mick Barr and Josh Blair, the two men who make up Orthrelm, I listened to them with symptoms akin to that of the stomach flu, and if there are two things in life that don’t mix they are queasiness and Orthrelm.
“They sound like they’re playing someone’s nervous system,” is what reads on their Web site, and I can attest no truer words have ever been written. In the short time I listened to OV (Ipecac), I had heart palpitations, I sweat out my fever, I felt a shooting pain in my teeth, and my nausea got the better of me (three times). And, the thing is I’m sure none of those were indicators of my ailment.
Take the same guitar riff play it over and over and over for about 10 minutes, then transition to a different riff, but play the new riff for another 10 minutes and add the consistent playing of a drum beat that never changes and you have Orthrelm’s 45-minute, one-track, instrumental CD. Every 10 to 15 minutes the sound changes, but then the new sound lasts for another 10 to 15 minutes.
The whole experience reminded me of a time in grade school when friends and I were playing with a strobe light. We started to feel sick, but we were so amused by the trippiness of the light we continued to play with it. Then my friend’s mom came into the room and said we’d better stop or we were going to have seizures. I pass that same advice onto all of you. Orthrelm may be unique and you may be amused by their trippiness, but I’m fairly positive listening to them for too long will only increase the probability of having a seizure.
Zombi, Voltage, and Big Nurse open.
— Angie Maldonado
Click here to download a sample of OV.
Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly
Small world. Your experience with the strobe light is much like one I too had with a strobe light in grade school. Downloaded one of their(Orthrelm) tracks just to give them the benefit of the doubt and, hopefully, prove you wrong, however I was unsuccessful in my attempt. As always. It has been over a year since I’ve had anything to do with being sick or a cold attack my body, but after listening to that one track, my stomach is doing flips and my throats burning.
One more for the good guys.