The Orphanage Committee – A Significant Change (Album – EE Tapes)
Genre/Influences: Experimental, Minimal-Electro.
Format: Digital, Vinyl.
Background/Info: This work by the Belgian solo-project The Orphanage Committee was released by the end of 2022. It features ten songs composed by Orphan S.C. Wallace.
Content: This work is mixing Experimental sound treatments with Minimal-Electro. Parts of the work remind me of the early 80s Electro-experiments of Throbbing Gristle and SPK. Sound collages, field recordings and spoken samplings are inviting the listener to visit the very own sound universe by this artist.
+ + + : This work is quite different to other albums I heard from the artist and which were all released in a short lapse of time. I like the Electro minimalism of this opus which reminds me of the ‘anti-music’ approach of the aforementioned Experimental pioneers. Especially the first side of the vinyl reveals a few outstanding cuts like “Factory Solicitant” and “Agnostic Ballad”. The second side takes off with another great piece of minimalism entitled “The Good Things We Do”.
– – – : The least I can say is that The Orphanage Committee is a little bit versatile; every single work sounds different and there’re even different influences featured at one album.
Conclusion: This is a cool album which I’m sure will appeal for addicts of the early 80s Electronics and -Experimental music.
Best songs: “The Good Things We Do”, “Factory Solicitant”, “Agnostic Ballad”.
Rate: 8.
Artist: www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100088677280058
Label: www.eetapes.be / www.facebook.com/eriek.vanhavere
About The Orphanage Committee
The Orphanage Committee is a Belgian solo project run by Orphan S.C. Wallace, based in Sint-Niklaas and released through the Belgian label EE Tapes. The project debuted in January 2022 with “Continuities Vol. I,” issued as a tribute marking the 35th anniversary of EE Tapes.
“A Significant Change,” reviewed here, followed in December 2022 as Wallace’s debut LP, mixing sequencers and drum machines with sampled voices and chants into dark, industrial-leaning beats. Two months later, in February 2023, the project released the album “The Seven Sacraments,” built around two extended tracks interpreting the seven Catholic sacraments through slow rhythms and psychedelic sound treatments.
Wallace closed out the year with “Sol in Solus” in October 2023, a ten-part concept album about nature and self-reflection, continuing the project’s pattern of releasing markedly different-sounding work in short succession.
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