White Orange "Onawa"

 It'd be easy for (m)any regular readers of this blog to guess what White Orange sound since they have a song called  ".....And I Leave The Circus" and the fact that we reviewed them before here may help those without memory problems.    There's no denying that Kyuss and Queens of The Stone Age are likely influences but the fuzzed out feedback places it as the odd man out since it leads into "Either/Or" has more in common with alternative rockers Sonic Youth than the desert stoner rock crowd.    As comparing any band to QOTSA is pretty much useless unless an album is named ".....And I Leave The Circus" is very reminiscent of the slower material from "Rated R", which is an album that was play-listed as a soundtrack to my life for quite sometime. White Orange are keener to get lost in a seventies inspired haze of smoke and guitar.  The band don't resist the temptation to jam out for both their own and the listeners benefit.  It may not be intentional that Dustin Hill has a vocal sound akin to Josh Homme but it works although others may be shaking their fists and cursing at clone bands.  Baby, this rock grooves and the groove rocks.  Vinyl junkies needing  physical grooves in and on black disks should take note that the three songs on this EP are available  in your favourite format from the band's bandcamp site, which is linked below.

3.5/5



Listen to Onawa


White Orange on Facebook

White Orange

There's a sweet smell and a cloud of smoke plus a bunch of people doing stuff that makes absolutely no sense to anyone that hasn't partaken in what is being shared around. Someone makes a comment about fruit and how it'd be trippy if bananas were purple and oranges were white. Which I guess is how White Orange got their name.

The fuzzed up sound of White Orange kneels and worships on the Josh Homme altar. The two openers sure are punchy and might convince some that they are actually listening to "Rated R" as both the songs right down to the voice and the production are more than a little reminiscent of Queens of The Stone Age at their peak. "Middle of the Riddle" has the nursery rhyme feel ovethat the title indicates at and the singer sounds a little like am ripped heavyweight pschedelic Bowie over the hazy but heavy guitar distortion. The voice of the Thin White Duke comes and goes in "Wonderful" where stoner rock heaviness is the name of the game. The very uptempo "Kill the Kids" invokes an insane spew into the porcelain after drinking too much feel and the song itself, isn't miles away from "To The Quick and to The Pointless".

There's a burn to "Sunspots" that makes it easy to catch more than a waft of the smell of the joint being passed around. The ride finishes with the mellow spacey "Sigourney Weaver" Despite a small amount of filler, the overall spaced out psychedelic groove of White Orange is irresistible.

3.5/5

Band website