Never imagined you could slot together two such disparate terms as “weird” and “beautiful”?
Think again.
‘Woklurk Orange’ is one of the more gorgeous EPs I’ve heard this year – weird or not.
“Funnily enough, it has everything and nothing to do with the movie,” Andrez Bergen tells me down a particularly crackly phone line from Tokyo, Japan.
Bergen is referring to neither weird nor beautiful, but to Stanley Kubrick’s seminal sci-fi movie, A Clockwork Orange, and to his new EP’s similar-sounding name: ‘Woklurk Orange’.
“I’d recorded that first track earlier in the afternoon, but was stuck on a title, so then I kicked back and slipped on one of the few DVDs I owned at the time – A Clockwork Orange – and when it was over I went into the kitchen to do a spot of cooking. But when I hauled the wok out of the cupboard, there was this rancid old orange inside. God knows where it came from, or what it was doing, lurking in there – but then, with the movie in mind, the silly play on words occurred to me…”
This was all back in 2002, just a year after Bergen had relocated to Tokyo from his home in Melbourne, Australia. It was also summer, and a particularly scorching one at that.
“I was a bit homesick, missing the outdoor restaurants and open-air bars that are everywhere in Melbourne – Tokyo just doesn’t have the space or the weather for that kind of thing – so I conjured up a track that was aimed at that outdoor summer chill feeling, but a little melancholic and reflective at the same time. It all just flowed in unprepared directions from there!”
Bergen says that ‘Woklurk Orange’ has been a body of work in fruition for the intervening six years, sandwiched between multiple other projects, including a flurry of other Little Nobody records that are more experimental in style, along with releases as Schlock Tactile, LNEE minus 3, Slam-Dunk Ninja, and DJ Fodder.
“It might’ve gotten lost, if not for the rescue attempt by Simon,” Bergen reports, referring to Simon aka DJ Hi-Shock, who runs the label Hypnotic Room in Sydney. Little Nobody has released three previous EPs through the label this year alone.
“Simon heard the ‘Woklurk Orange’ material and insisted upon releasing it – and along the way made me look at afresh, appreciate how good it actually is, and have another go by adding the newer track, ‘Have You Heard This?’.
Simon’s an inspiring label manager, and I love the way he sees outside the square, and perceives the value in things that we – as artists – sometimes move on from and forget.”
That value is being observed by others, too. The ‘Woklurk Orange’ EP has thus far been described by DJ reviewers with comments like “slow, dubby and wonderful”, “beautiful”, “weird”, and “nice feeling”.
So what do they mean by comments like this? What does it all sound like, anyway?
For starters, there’s the Original Mix, the one Bergen confirms was recorded in 2002 but never actually released previously.
It begins all grainy and lo-fi, like a radio not quite in tune, with someone lazily tinkering on a keyboard, before the kick kicks in.
And it’s a mighty kick – deep, powerful, spellbinding.
The tempo may be slow, the haunting pads in the background might be moody and there may be ethereal, drifting moments to the track, but overall it’s a funky, sublime, Booka Shade-style piece that leaves you breathless!
The Retort Mix continues the lo-fidelity intro concept, but bends straight into the beats: initially minimalistic, then a more layered techno groove reminiscent of Jeff Mills in his early Axis records.
Then the surprises happen. Kyu-Kyu Buzz Mix goes funky, disco-tech house, with a wild echo-effect on the stripped back beats. It’s another sensually slow builder, with sampled real rock drums, that culminates in some devastatingly funky/jazz techno in its latter half – guaranteed to send a crowd mad.
By contrast, Hakuchuo Numa tweaks the cute – there are some wonderful sneaky, burrowing sounds squeezed into the demanding minimal tech-house groove here – and it shakes your tail-feather in ways Chicago’s DJ Rush or DJ Sneak might approve of.
Finally, that most recent track in this selection, ‘Have You Heard This?’, winds up the EP with a beautiful, organic mix of house, breaks and dubstep that would raise the floor in any summer venue dance area.
“It’s one of my more downbeat selections, for sure,” Bergen appraises, “With much less eccentricity or cut-up sampling ideology than your usual Little Nobody record. Weirdly, I guess the simplicity itself is refreshing, and some people are telling me it’s an uplifting experience. And that’s cool.”
- By Justin Case (Australia)
