ORGY
PUNK STATIK PARANOIA
MAVERICK

LINKS:
punkstatikparanoia.com

Webster’s dictionary defines an orgy as a wild, drunken, uncontrolled merrymaking. I define an orgy as a ridiculously large group of people participating in every kind of perversion known, and some that have been thought up on the spot. It’s a lot of people fucking touching grabbing groping biting pinching sucking licking everything that they can get their hands on.
. If you need a visual reference, rent Caligula or pick up issues 15 and 16 of Preacher and you might be in the ballpark. Orgy the band define their music as something that “…is utterly savage, unabashedly stylish, and entirely guilt free.” Orgy’s new album Punk Statik Paranoia is not a musical “orgy” in any sense of the word. It doesn’t even fall into the dictionary’s definition of the word. This doesn’t mean it is a bad album. The fact of the matter is that Punk Statik Paranoia is generic music that I don’t even try to hazard a guess at defining.
There are nine tracks on the album, which are all very tight musically, in that no instrument is favored over another. Jay Gordon’s voice is as strong on this album as it was on Orgy’s previous two releases, Candyass and Vapor Transmission, and he doesn’t try to make his voice do anything that it can’t do. The standout song on the album is the first track “Beautiful Disgrace”, which has a hook that the song derives its title from and has a tendency to stick in the brain a little. And this is where the problems with Punk Statik Paranoia lie. There is nothing new being tried out on this album. The synth sounds that helped Orgy create their niche are little more than effects on this album and are not utilized to their full potential. While I’ve already stated that the songs are tight, they don’t stand out in any way.
The lesson here is if you are going to name your band Orgy, you have to be able to live up to that name. Each album needs to drive people to wild bouts of marathon sex, not a pleasant masturbation session. Still, sometimes there isn’t anything wrong with masturbation.

----Steve Walker