Ensemble Orlando – At the Lake LP (self-released)
In typical Murphy’s Law (not the band) fashion, the first real show of latent Thinking Fellers Local Union 282 respect would come from across the pond. Denmark lots-a-members outfit Ensemble Orlando formed in 2007 and proudly advertises a love of San Francisco’s greatest non-Steel Pole Bathtub export. But what really matters is that At the Lake expertly flies the flag of authentically-bent pop during an era when the charlatans and amateurs are flying the plane, while everyone (including those in their thirties or older that know better) gladly sits in front of the proverbial plates of shit being served, stuffing their faces like first-day-free ex-cons at a catered wedding. Some listeners or readers (who don’t plan on listening at all) will scoff at the fact that this album could’ve been time-machined from an especially adventurous corner of underground goings-on circa-1995. Hey, someone is buying all of the Thinking Fellers albums on eBay, and it’s not this writer (kept my originals …) It looks really awesome when the promotional organs of so many lesser acts of today reference a bunch of older artists that the collage-core set has memorized and understands as “seminal”, regardless of the past artists’ actual similarities to the entity being pushed. In the spirit of this, let it be known that the following artists really did inform Ensemble Orlando during the creation of At the Lake: Sun City Girls, Fly Ashtray, Furtips, Meringue, Uncle Wiggly, and you know whooooooooo … Highly, highly, recommended. (http://www.ensembleorlando.dk)
(Andrew Earles)
