Hamilton has long been associated with the industrial processes that lie at the economic heart of the city. A simple drive along Burlington street at night will illuminate the aesthetic grounding for many local performers. The beat of industrial machinery and Hamilton’s newfound desire to be the world’s biggest drive-thru shopping mall are the twin complements to the aural life of Steeltown. Standing outside many buildings in the city’s north end provides a listener with natural soundtrack of pulses, scrapings, and sonic detritus. The fortuitously found and the callously disregarded becomes an interesting dynamic to the incessant beat of industry. Noise and rhythm coincide and support each other at the intersection of production.
MP3: Orphx - Insurgent Flows
Interestingly enough, most Hamilton residents who seek such aural pleasures in a more formal setting quickly learn to visit the Toronto music scene, as few local venues cater to the tastes of the beat aesthetes. It might be for this reason that local performers who have earned a degree of recognition in foreign lands have a harder time being acknowledged closer to home. As a consequence, many local producers seeking wider recognition have moved to cities which more fully support their music. This exodus has tended to leave techno on the fringes of the local music underground.
Orphx have enough experience with Hamilton that they can see the waxing and waning of the scene. “Ten years ago it was better,” muses Richard Oddie, the producer at the heart of Orphx. “There were a couple venues for good industrial and techno back then. Fifteen years ago there were great warehouse parties. Now there’s no techno in the area.” It was for this reason that Orphx followed the electronic scene as its centre of gravity shifted to continental Europe. Germany has had a particular connection to the band. In addition to performing at the recent Maschinenfest in that country last month, many of Orphx’s recordings have been with the German Hands Productions and Hymen labels.
“The scene’s more widespread there. It’s in a lot of cities, whereas in North America it only exists on a small scale in a few cities. And instead of the fetish people and things that you tend to get here, the European scene attracts a more diverse crowd.” That being said, Oddie has witnessed a substantial rise in interest for experimental music in the local scene. “I think there’s a lot of Mac students who are into this sort of thing but just assume there’s nothing for it in Hamilton. That’s really a part of the general disconnection that they feel for the downtown core. It’s time for Hamilton to get a regular night for experimental and electronic music. We could support a monthly event just with the people who are already out there. There’s plenty of people in the city who want to dance to good music but don’t want to travel to Toronto, and others who want to listen to good DJs. Let’s get DJs out to the growing Jamesville gallery scene.”
This Sunday, Orphx is celebrating the release of the new Hands CD Insurgent Flows with a rare local live performance. The CD implies Oddie’s continued fascination with the mechanics and consequences of social change. The album title signals both the pleasant excess of its kick-heavy industrial rhythms, and the layers of noise and samples which continually insist themselves onto the rhythmic soundfloor. Oddie has used a number of protest recordings as samples which provide a loosely cinematic undertone to the proceedings.
Asked to what extent his activist proclivities infiltrate his music, Oddie questions the authenticity of messages that any artist might wish to highlight in their music. “Whether political or not, you don’t want to force yourself down listener’s throats. ‘Where’s the globalization here, or where’s the ironic media quote?’ You want to be more subtle so you don’t stifle any other meanings in the work. Obviously, it’s hard to resist talking about things when something’s going on. But think of a band like Stereolab. Nice, sweet pop music. But look at the lyrics, which are pretty subversive. It’s not that they’re Marxist, but that they’re catchy. I think it’s important to try different strategies. It’s more challenging to be legitimately ambiguous.”
Elements of previous compositional strategies – such as the use of location recordings centred upon the Hamilton region, exemplified by 2001's The Living Tissue – further complicate the aural landscape that Orphx creates. Other inputs, such as the video work that has highlighted many an Orphx performance, serve as secondary complements to the audio. Oddie harkens back to the early phase of industrial music, when bands like Throbbing Gristle would show things such as autopsy videos during their live performances. “We see that stuff in Marilyn Manson videos now. We’re desensitized to it. You have to almost do the opposite of that kind of shock industrial. Let people determine what they want from your music themselves.” Oddie stresses that the video work that backgrounds the Orphx live show is not meant to distract listeners from the music. “I want to interest them more than the nodding of heads and the twiddling of knobs that we’re actually doing. It’s about patterns of light and is not really narrative or referential.”
Oddie is confident that the propulsive strength of this CD will renew the faith of both chin-strokers and dancefloor enthusiasts alike as to the viability of Hamilton’s electronic community. The Casbah will host Orphx on Sunday, October 30. In a live setting, Orphx performs as a duo incorporating the interplay of Oddie and his wife Christie Sealey with a host of modern and vintage sound equipment. That night will also feature a live performance by local producer Huren – whose dirty, noisy electronic sounds have similarly found a stable of fans worldwide – as well as a DJ set by Matt Didemus of Junior Boys.
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