I have to be honest, when I first saw the announcement back in 2017 that the forthcoming Oh Sees record would be called Orc, I thought man, that's lazy as hell. This is a band with a series of excellent album titles—yes, I even like Drop for its varying meanings—and Orc just seemed arbitrary. Sure, Dwyer was turning up the fantasy influence in the lyrics and overall aesthetic of the band, but “Orc”? Really? Plain and simple “Orc”? Not even “Warrior Orc” or “Orcs Brew” or something? Well, perhaps this paring back of the title was a nod to the band changing their name to simply Oh Sees, dropping the Thee. As it turned out, while a couple listens of Orc won't sound so different from A Weird Exits/An Odd Entrances, there's more changes going on than the surface level name change and stripped back album title indicate.
Orc was released on August 25th, 2017, and along with the band name shortening to Oh Sees, there were a couple other crucial changes. As discussed in the last retrospective, Ryan Moutinho quit the band two days before the release of An Odd Entrances, and in early 2017 Paul Quattrone took his slot, maintaining the dual drummer setup we've all come to love. This addition would also solidify the modern-era lineup (minus Tomas Dolas, who only became an official member after Smote Reverser). By the by, for those curious, Quattrone is always in the left stereo channel and Dan Rincon is always in the right. I'm assuming they kept this convention going forward though I don't recall if the liner notes continue to specify this. The other big change is that this is the first Oh Sees album not to have Chris Woodhouse as recording engineer/producer/collaborator, after a streak stretching all the way back to Sucks Blood in 2007. I'm sad to report I wasn't able to find any information explaining why Woodhouse stopped working with Oh Sees. Judging by his Discogs credits, he hasn't been very active in the last year or two. He even left The Dock recording studio he helped found. Hopefully nothing bad happened to him, or anyway, between him and Oh Sees. Anyway, this led Orc to be a production handled by the team of John Dwyer, Eric Bauer, Ty Segall, and Enrique Tena (who is referred to in Smote Reverser track 'Enrique El Cobrador', which means “Enrique the debt collector”). It's weird, I always forget Ty Segall worked on Orc. I'd think this would be a bigger deal to people but I don't remember anyone bringing it up or commenting on it. By 2017 Ty Segall was arguably more mainstream and popular than Oh Sees, yet none of the professional music magazine/website reviews made even the smallest fuss of his involvement.
To these ears, Orc is a slightly-more-modern sequel to Mutilator Defeated At Last. It's solid all the way through, has no weak tracks, and it's an across-the-board fan favorite. It also has a reputation as a dark/heavy album akin to Floating Coffin. This isn't completely deserved, at least musically. Yes, lyrically the album is pretty dark and heavy, a strange mix of almost self-consciously poetic turns of phrase and disturbing imagery, continuing the apocalyptic scifi/fantasy concepts of the last two records. For example, opener 'The Static God' is from the point of view of a self-destructive/masochistic character, trying to bum cigarettes and wondering aloud, “I'm leaning in/into the whip/does it satisfy me?” Not to mention there's a track called 'Cadaver Dog', for god's sake! Musically, the album is quite heavy though it does have more variety than Floating Coffin, so the reputation is only partly deserved. Before I get to said variety I should touch on the heaviness, as Orc has some of the band's most crunchy riffs and metal-tinged moments. 'Animated Violence' is one of the heaviest tracks of the modern-era, rivaled only by 'Face Stabber' or 'Heartworm.' However, this heaviness is leavened expertly with slower/calmer moments and songs, like the five minute long viola-led second section of 'Keys To The Castle' and the slow dance fantasia of 'Drowned Beast.' There's also the aptly named 'Cooling Tower', which sacrifices heaviness for grooviness, and has a churning/chugging up-and-down riff that reminds me a bit of both parts of 'Unwrap The Fiend.' Also, is it just me or does the drumming on this track really sound like Can circa Ege Bamyasi? They've been a huge influence on Oh Sees for years but the grooviness and repetition of the drumming on this track is absolutely out of Jaki Liebezeit's wheelhouse, specifically 'Vitamin C.'
The main difference that sets Orc apart from the previous few releases is that the songs are more dynamic and sectional. This is part of where the increased prog rock influence comes in. Sure, the songs being a bit longer than normal, overall, accounts for this feeling as well, but only partially. 'Nite Expo' and 'Keys To The Castle' both have a rather linear development instead of the usual pop song verse/chorus/verse, while 'Raw Optics' is the kind of solid album ending instrumental that you want to write home about. It's a classic 70s prog rock/acid rock track and I absolutely adore the drum solo section. It's a much more interesting and enjoyable version of the 'Drums' improvisation sections of the second set of Grateful Dead shows. This song, more than any other, points to the jammier direction of Smote Reverser and Face Stabber. While we're on the subject of instrumentals, it's worth noting that Orc has three of them, and two of them are back-to-back in the tracklisting, with the third coming one song later. In theory this risks backloading the album with samey sounding material, but Oh Sees have mastered so many styles of music and the dynamics of instrumental songwriting/jamming that they're among the most compelling songs on Orc.
Since I'm not going to do a retrospective on it, I want to briefly mention the Dead Medic EP. At only two tracks it's difficult to call it an EP though both tracks add up to 20 minutes, so maybe this is one time I need to stop being so pedantic and listen to the artist's intent. Near as I can tell the title track is an in-studio jam, with frenetic drumming and all kinds of psychedelic splurts and burbles going off like slow motion fireworks reflected on the surface of a lake. The other track is a cover of an old school Swedish band I won't even pretend to have heard of. Reminds me a bit of what I remember Amon Düül II sounding like, though I haven't listened to them in years so I recommend finding out for yourself.
As I don't have anything negative to say about Orc, I do want to also take the time to briefly detour to mention a truly terrible and insulting review of the album on Under The Radar. They gave it a ridiculously low 2/10 score, and that's whatever; I hate scoring systems, I haven't used them for years, and that's not why I was so bothered. Moreso I'm blinded by rage with the condescending tone and jabs at nerd culture in this useless, masturbatory excuse for a review. I don't know what it is with the “professional” music press in the UK always being huge pretentious assholes in general, and especially about psychedelic and prog rock music. If you guys sometimes disagree strongly with what I write, prepare yourselves for this bullshit: http://www.undertheradarmag.com/reviews/oh_sees_orc/
OK, detours are over. Given the context of the records to follow, you can look at Orc as being the svelte and focused version of what Smote Reverser and Face Stabber mutated the sound into. By this I mean that Orc lacks most of the jammy/noodly stuff that turns some people off of the latest two albums. This isn't to say Orc is a pop record with short songs, far from it. A better explanation is that it trims all the fat and the sprawl and only leaves the best, most essential parts in these songs. Myself, I love the fat and the sprawl, too. Sometimes I want 'Nite Expo' and sometimes I want 'Henchlock', just as sometimes Oh Sees want to title an album “Orc” and not “The Master's Bedroom Is Worth Spending A Night In.” What else is there to say? You know Orc, you love Orc. Zug zug.
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