Orsino Nation: Spectrasanct

Orsino Nation is a duo from Adelaide, Australia and Spectrasanct is their first full length album. They are Yasmine Amber (lead vocals, autoharp, bodhran) and Charger (keys, synths, drums, flute, vocals). A number of guest musicians appear as well.

This is another band I had yet to hear and the album's first track "The Flesh-Eating Zombie Love Song" is anything but your standard fare. A mixture of electronic pop and heavy metallic guitar riffs will keep you guessing as to what will come next. The next two tracks "Wanderlust" and "Midsommar" are more conventional pop flavoured ballads with pretty piano and angelic lead vocals. In "The Mad-Hatter's Tea Party" the strangeness continues with its mixture of circus/pop elements and metallic guitar riffs. When the flamenco style guitar enters it almost becomes a little too much giving this one a disjointed feel. "Liza" takes the music into industrial territory with its muted guitars and heavy electronics while "Dixie Wonderland" is a pretty acoustic ballad with a heartfelt vocal arrangement and wistful flute. The album's longest track is the ethereal "The Plague Of Sand" featuring stark piano and a lush orchestral arrangement. Of course, like in many of these tracks the heavy metal riffage takes the song in an unexpected direction.

To say Spectrasanct is a hard record to pigeonhole is an understatement. The band cover so many different styles I found the 'flow' of the album to be somewhat compromised. That said, one has to be impressed with their creativity and penchant for crafting some pretty decent melodies. It will be interesting to hear where they go next.

Track Listing:
1. The Flesh-Eating Zombie Love Song
2. Wanderlust
3. Midsommar
4. Belladonna
5. The Mad-Hatter's Tea Party
6. Liza
7. Horses
8. Dixie Wonderland
9. Hallelujah
10. Mary
11. Dr. Hooripopf
12. Highway To Disaster
13. Blood On The Doors
14. Eirawen
15. The Plague Of Sand
16. Touch Of Ice

Added: May 6th 2014
Reviewer: Jon Neudorf
Score:
Related Link: Band's Official Site
Hits: 1698
Language: english

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