Features
Dead Rat Orchestra
The first time I saw DRO perform was back in 2003 (I think) in their second home of the Colchester Arts Centre, I distinctly remember them beating the stage with every muscle to bring home their unique dirge. Beguilling is a word i've used to describe them before and every performance is so. Utilising everything from harmoniums, church organ pipes, bells, tables, suitcases, record players, computers and guitars to violins and mbiras (the list goes on) to create their singular sound, its all in the delivery. Where in some hands this strange orchestration could become throw away, the minimal exposition of the sounds are what DRO are all about; producing sounds, tones and tunes as if born from the ground in itself.
Below are their new releases on their imprint Hopewell Sound as well as their amazing CDR on Palimpsest. You can also find some great performances on the videos page.
Dead Rat Orchestra - Live at St. Martins Church
cdr on hand painted cardstock in various colours
(fold over cd size)
free folk/modern composition/improv/pipes/microtones
limited 300 copies
'Ending with the same tinkling percussion in which the album began, the set feels less like a short run CDR of a rambling improvisation than a brilliant “live” album in an age when that seems to be a quickly diminishing term'. Kenneth Zubiate, Foxy Digitalis (August 2007)
'The set indulges traditional instruments (harmonium, violin and guitar), scrappy technology (old record players), found sound, improvisation and other detritis (suitcases) with a definite tight musical craft to deliver a stunning performance. It is sometimes folk inflected, sometimes sparse, sometimes chaotic but also transcending and spiritual (helped no doubted by the church's ambience). Truely underground, experimental and intrinisically unclassifiable. Highly recommended for those with ears for eccentricity and originality'. Leicester Bangs (Nov 2007).
Recorded live on 29th July 2004 at St. Martins Church, Colchester using a stereo pair of matched microphones in the concert music tradition, this recording breathes and cracks not only the performance but the idiosyncrasies and personality of the performance space. Captured the only was it could have been: live and with no edits.
Having been held up in the church for a week, the Dead Rat Orchestra installed harmoniums, church organ pipes, suitcases, scratchy record players, organs, guitar and violins to work on their set. The Dead Rat Orchestra never performs the same piece twice; each show is totally unique. Although not without improvisation, many of the pieces are worked out in scrupulous details, often concentrating on the textures and the ‘notes between the notes’, they offer a sound which is hard to pin down, although always intriguing and with obvious minimalist and modern composition reference points. The Dead Rat Orchestra are like an organic movement of tiny entities moving towards an unknown centre.
NEW COVER FOR Nos. 100 - 300.
For fans of Arvo Part, Animal Collective, Bartok, Tony Conrad, Jackie O Motherfucker
INSTOCK
cdr // £5.00 Buy Now
Dead Rat Orchestra - 8 April 2003
Set recored at Colchester Arts Centre in 2003 from the sound desk - their first live show. You can hear every crackle, creak and whisper of feedback. The set shows a much more electronic/improvised side, comprised of loosely two pieces bases around thematic ideas the band had been working on. Includes computer generated feedback, beaten up record players, glitched music box, an assortment of acoustic oddities and some singing for good measure.
INSTOCK
cdr // £6.00 Buy Now
Dead Rat Orchestra Ghostband - (with Mt View Memorial Choir)
Recorded in support of Silver Mt Zion (explaining in part the extended name) at Colchester Arts Centre in 2007, this set comprised only two of the normal trio, who launched into the set with a physical commitment at times causing the audience to stand back to avoid being struck by disintegrating bells. The set comprised pieces old and new, ranging from delicate melodicism to broken chaos, and was imbued by the presence of the missing third member, who led the recorded singing (carefully pieced back together live) in the last a track – a glorious take of the Lullaby.
INSTOCK
CDR // £6.00 Buy Now
Dead Rat Orchestra - Palimpsest Festival 2006
Check out a video of this performance on the video page.
This set marked the reconvening after about a year of not playing together - yet the music they produced feels tighter than ever, marked with a new purpose. Starting with a hushing lullaby the set creeping into physical guitar/violin moment set against the snap and crackle of matches and foley snow - both pieces relating to work they had done earlier on a live soundtrack for Nanook of the North. A ramshackle hoedown follows, all crossing rhythms and joyous intent. The last piece using clockchime gamelan, kettle drum and scorching improv fiddle.
INSTOCK
CDR // £6.00 Buy Now