We've all gone Oranj. Week 16 takes me into the unknown - never had Kurious Oranj so this is a first. But first some live stuff - Guest Informant from Backdrop and some forgettable stuff from Live Various Years.
And something special: I Am As Pure As Oranj, a live recording from the Edinburgh debut of Oranj. One of the best moments of my first time in San Francisco was spending an hour in SFMoMA watching a Michael Clark documentary. Mark and Brix showed up, and they showed a few of the interpretations. It wasn't far away from the weirdness here.
Mark kicks things off with "Dog Is Life", basically a standard Smith rant about Dogs or what not. Then they play through pretty much the album. It feels surprisingly coherent, and I imagine a bit more rehearsal went into this than Luciani. Jerusalem sounds cracking, never had much time for this one but it's really growing on me now - homesick I guess.
Kurious Oranj is daft and will unfortunately always be remembered as the theme to the orange on Lee and Herring. Yes Oh Yes is a total throwaway, I guess giving the dancers a break. Hip Priest is totally weird, it sounds like the album version, and then 3 minutes in they play Big New Priest over the top and then it goes back to Hip Priest again. Non album stuff too: Frenz which was probably quite nice to watch. And I'm not sure how Bremen Nacht and Cab It Up fits into the William of Orange story. But there we go - a together and fairly interesting set.
The album itself is a little disappointing after that. I like Big New Prinz, like an update of Hip Priest. The Overture sounds like Brix's idea: full on Jangle, like a US power ballad, with Brix sneering the name of songs over the top. Dog Is Life, sounds like the one from the show. Of the songs not in the show, Guide me Soft is somewhat forgettable. CD Win Fall 2088 AD is Acid Priest 2008. They end with Big New Priest, and it's pretty cracking but overall Kurious Oranj is more curious than orange.
Then a Peel Session: Dead Beat Descendant is good and pretty straight up for the Fall, nice guitar riff and everything. Cab It Up is similar. Squid Lord was better on Seminal Live and Kurious Oranj again with a crazy intro. I like the lyrics but it seems all a bit fun for a history lesson. And then the box set, which I used to own (the postcards long gone naturally). It always felt a bit more serious than it was. Acid Priest was too much techno for this Fall fan, but Jerusalem is the grower. And that was 1988.
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