Customer Reviews

The Ortolan

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was privileged enough to see these guys at a concert about 6 months ago. They opened for I Hate Kate and Hot Hot Heat. At first I found the music catchy and intriguing. I bought the CD about a week ago finally on Itunes because it is so obscure I couldn't find it at a local Borders or anything.

When I listen to this album I find that the music and lyrics combined have an artistry like I haven't heard. I get surreal images of fairy tales and spooky abadoned towns. They give a faint reminiscent feeling of other strange albums like Yellow Submarine where, as we have learned, nothing is real.

A step in a new direction for indie rockers everywhere, this is an important and unique album. It ranges from acoustic to electronic to flat out rock with hints of synth and B3. Catchy and rememberable. Despairing and uplifting. Can make you dance and can make you think. Really inspirational.

Tracks worth giving a listen: Wolves in the Garden, Eucalyptus and I Hope I Become a Ghost. They are great live and on recording, check 'em out!

I absolutely love this album, I listen to it every day. I wasn't into Indie music until I heard these guys. Each song is totally different in both music and lyrical style. Currently this is my favorite album and I can't listen to it enough. Definitely recommend this album to everyone! If you get a chance, see them live as well, they're extremely entertaining. Favorite band. Favorite album. Period.

I just got done listing to the The Ortolan and I got to say that it was amazing! I haven't heard an album this good since Bôa's Twilight. I highly recommend this album to any one.

First heard The Deadly Syndrome through Pandora on the Band of Horses channel. Streamed the album for a month through Imeem, while I was out of the country. Purchased it as soon as I returned. The Ortolan rocks. The songs are wonderful, descriptive stories, which are supported by smooth melodies, punchy rhythm, and a near fragile voice.

By the album, check out some stuff on MySpace, whatever. Just do something.

French President Francois Mitterand's last meal before he died were two well-prepared Ortolan birds that he ate with a hood over his head. The meal was illegal but it was a dying man's last wish. The Deadly Syndrome's debut album `The Ortolan' is still fresh and new to me, but for some people it will take on a sentimental value as well.

I've been listening obsessively to popmusic now for about 14 years, that's exactly half of my life. After so many years you develop a certain awareness; not everything is new anymore, but some things will mean more because you haven't heard it before. And once in a while a record comes by that really blows your mind like this one by a California based band that has only been around since for about two years.

From the first notes of `Eucalyptus' and the chanting singing that sounds like a mix of Sunset Rubdown/Wolf Parade/Arcade Fire and Dexy's Midnight Runners (yes, the Come On Eileen folkies). A song built on basically one brilliant riff by guitar and xylophone. There is a overhanging influence of the Arcade Fire, in songs like `Creature, Creature' for example, with a superb middle part.

`I Hope I Become A Ghost' starts with a choppy piano riff with wavering voice and guitar before evolving; a mix of Shins and Ben Folds almost before ending in an instrumental speed race for the last two minutes. This time more sounding like My Chemical Romance and 80's punk rock.

`Wolves in the Garden' is a great acoustic song that made me think of Elliott Smith and the Shins, and a little Band of Horses but with acoustic guitars strapped on, beautifully arranged with xylophone and strings.

And then they sound like the National in the opening bars of `Animal Wearing Clothes' in a duet with the Flaming Lips, singing a heartwrenching ballad that also has some of the dynamics of instrumental Built To Spill in the last part of the song, which even includes some accordeon. Next track `Friends Who Don't Go Out At Night' could be a Smashing Pumpkins song but without distorted guitars, the changing of speeds after around 3 minutes is perfect, and again slides into a Built To Spill longwinded end, but with synthesizer in the last bang of the song. The sound of an acoustic Doug Martsch returns in `The Ship That Shot Itself'.

And it keeps going on like this. Every minute you hear a new reference, but the great thing about the Deadly Syndrom is that they don't sound like a clone of all those bands, but more a next step in the development of that sound. I know the song `Heart' reminds me of 5 different bands, but it's just `Sunset Rubdown' that springs to mind, but with some youthful vigor that makes it all sound fresh. Amazing considering the great arrangements of the song. The songs are usually 3 parters, not the usual verse/chorus/verse progression but the intro is quite different from the end part. Take away the middle and you have two equal parts that don't really fit together. Their bridges are not 2 bars, but complete new verses. It's like seeing some guys discuss Madonna's `Like a Virgin' in a diner while in the next shot most of them are dead; it only makes sense when you experience the middle part.

And the record keeps amazing for the entire 55 minutes. Here's a record made by four guys from different parts of America who looked deep into rock history to take the best things, with a strong focus on the 21st century groups. As with many releases of the last couple of years, they are dynamic, well produced, smart and multi-instrumental. It usually takes groups a few years to melt together and make the best music they can do as a group, and if these guys can even grow beyond this they have a long and rich future ahead of them.

This CD is so multi-faceted and interesting it's been such a struggle to remove it from my CD player this week! I recommend it to anyone looking for something deeper than run-of-the-mill indie pop. Favortie tracks include "Wolves in the Garden" "I Hope I Become a Ghost" and "The Ship That Shot Itself." What a GREAT overall accomplishment by such an underappreciated band.

This is quite truly the most awesome album I have heard in my lifetime. No exaggeration. This is so awesome that I urge you all to buy it, with money. None of that internetting-downloading stuff for this. Someone deserves to get paid for the brilliance that comes out of this CD.

Honestly, though, this is hard to stop listening to. Some parts are haunting and other parts are just sort of fun. Favorite tracks of mine are "Eucalyptus," "I Hope I Become a Ghost," and "Emily Paints."