Wednesday 21 December 2011

From the Top Drawer XXX - The Oroonies


Here we are at the Winter Solstice once more (at least in the Northern Hemisphere), on the shortest day/longest night of the year, the exact time of the event this year falling at 0530 GMT on Thursday morning 22nd December. It's unusual for the Solstice to fall on the 22nd, but the Gregorian calendar has only 365 days, so each year the exact time of the Solstice is pushed back by around six hours. Next year is a leap year so the auspicious solstice of 2012 will be back on track for the 21st December. 11.11am, I believe, will be the actual time for the Mayan Calendar-inspired End of this World (or not, according to whatever your belief system tells you!).


What better way to celebrate the Solstice and to enter the year of the Final Countdown than by putting another log on the fire, raising a mug of ale or glass of mulled wine and toasting the imminent return of the Light to a soundtrack provided by those Pagan minstrels, the Oroonies.

Here we have a late 1980s (?) tape release called 'Ee-I-Ee-I-O'.
The band had improved (slightly) the quality of their recordings by this time and were also using more electronic gadgets such as drum machines and samplers. The tunes were more diverse and distinctively melodic (!), dipping into reggae and other forms of danceable musics (albeit in a mutated fashion) but on the whole there would be plenty to please lovers of their early earthy Pan-worshipping pagan weirdness...


Contained on the tape are the tunes 'Aradia' and 'They Don't Want Us', both of which appeared on a rare 12" EP on Hiraeth Records with 'The Woods Are Alive With The Smell Of His Coming'. 'They Don't Want Us' even got played by John Peel on his show one night (I heard it!). After spinning the tune Peel was heard to comment enigmatically, 'I know what they mean...'

Ripped as two side-long tracks @320kbps from an original tape.
The only track titles on the tape artwork are as can be seen above -
  Side One: Around The World
  Side Two: And Back Again

Sorry folks, but there's somebody out there that does not want this album shared on Mediafire (the file hosting service I use). I have received two warning emails from MF to take this file down from their server. These could only have come from someone who is making a copyright claim on this album (or a simple mistake). Unless we are living in a Kafka-esque world where we don't get to find out who is making a claim against us, then would the person(s) involved please identify themselves here in the comments so I can either apologize to them or if I consider their claim to be invalid, tell them where to go. I find it strange that I've posted a few Oroonies albums but it's only this one that's getting the negative attention. Thank you.

6 comments:

  1. thanks for this mr duster very enjoyabubble

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  2. Many thanks, great tape

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  3. Thanks for leaving yer comments anons - come again!

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  4. Thank you for this one. I saw them many years ago, very impressive. I also saw them as Cheapsuit Oroonies have you come across any tapes of the Cheapsuit Oroonies.
    When I saw the Oroonies also saw FOS Brothers doing Zappa's 'Torture Never Stops' and The Grateful Dub - dub versions of Grateful Dead tunes. So many fabulous little bands around then.

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  5. Thanks for stopping by, vishangro.
    I'm afraid that I don't have access to any Cheapsuit tapes at the moment, but I'm not ruling out getting hold of one at some stage.

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  6. post by Nazerman: the oroonies were the best band in the world at that time, i love all their tapes and records, and remember like it was yesterday when they decided to stop making the pagan psych punk that they were so awesome at

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