The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Orange (Album Review)

 

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Orange

(1994)


My copy: remastered reissue on orange/yellow splatter vinyl by Shove Records.


With Orange Jon Spencer shows just how far he had come from time spent experimenting with borderline incomprehensible lo-fi rock in the 80s and early 90s. Finally gaining a wider audience with drummer Russell Simins and guitarist Judah Bauer, Orange might be their most well known release. While “blues” is in the title, the music jolts and jumps around from noisy rock fever pitches to country riffing, all under Spencer’s scuffed Elvis impression. 

“Bellbottoms” starts out strangely symphonic with grandiose strings clashing against splintering guitar licks - the song totally resets into crazier walls of vocal noise, until Spencer guides the track through careful tangents. The pacing is unstable as tracks bounce between tempos, adding layers only to remove them in the next moment, and always holding the satisfying payoffs for the end. “Ditch” embraces country with tessellating guitar riffs at first, then detouring into wild drones with no-wave-esque screeching. “Dang” transforms blues harmonica into an agent of chaos with lo-fi filters and sharp, prickly guitar: here they are most reminiscent of Spencer’s work with Pussy Galore in ‘89.

Buzzing bass and funk guitar lights up “Very Rare,” an instrumental that draws from the slower rockabilly of the Dead Milkmen or the Minutemen. Swung, rolling drums ripple through the powerful vocal calls of “Sweat” before the album dips into American roots rock on “Cowboy” albeit with a signature level of scuzz. The title track is an excellent display of their command over writing: the track is as unpredictable as it is groovy, smartly delaying basslines to elevate their impact in pivotal moments. “Brenda” chugs along smoothly under guitar flare-ups as the vocals take on falsetto moaning. The music is blown down to half-time hillbilly rock before the commanding force of “Dissect” reminds us of their punk sensibilities. 

Spencer rambles convincingly along “Blues X Man” with female backup vocals that get sucked into a vortex of reversed effects - this is one of the more effective experiments on the record. The humor found in the idea of some Elvis impersonator reciting such vulgar rhetoric as on “Full Grown” fades the further the joke is stretched, though the idea elicits a laugh or two. “Flavor” manages to impress for its use of repetition in conjugation with anticipation, subverting listeners by breaking to weird funk riffing and later answering machine vocals with harsh noise. Closing track “Greyhound” is an instrumental that commands tighter shifts in tempo, eventually uncurling from alt-country into vaguely hip-hop influenced territory thanks to a droning theremin melody. 

It’s easy to be fooled going into this record having only heard one song, but the full record finds itself switching gears frequently. There are shockingly languid moments (for the style) that show a more vulnerable side to these songwriters. Spencer is still hopped up and ravenous mostly, but even he relents to softer bouts on occasion. The material can take time to settle in as most compositions feel uncomfortable, but when you finally manage to sort the worthwhile rides from some of the head-scratching genre combos, the album clicks in a special way.


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