ORANGE SUNSHINE "Do you new age losers really think we can communicate through telepathy with 'people' on the other side of the universe?" Forget the host of retro-rock bands wandering about in their paisley shirts and bellbottom jeans, Hollands own Orange Sunshine has the real LSD-driven, late 60's sounds and man do they rip! The band plays a heady, explosive, fuzzed-out mix of garage-acid-punk and proto hardrock with Detroit-rock simplicity and the very soul of amphetamine driven blues. There aren't any gimmicks, just three guys and a whole pile of killer riffs, influenced by the likes of Blue Cheer, MC5 & Stackwaddy. Orange Sunshine just released "Ruler Of The Universe" on vinyl [a limited black label edition up to 300 copies], and initially recorded as their second album during the "Homo Erectus" sessions. It features fucked-up renditions of the Cream's "Sunshine of Your Love", "Demon's Eye" [Deep Purple], and Terry Brooke's Strange'"Ruler of The Universe" -the full 15 minutes of sitar, tablas, sectarian cult-choir vocals, endless crazy guitar freak-out solo-ing and the excessive use of never ending self-oscillating echo, flanger, phaser and delay effects. Get your copy through Orange Sunshine's Guy. Words | Guy It took some time [5 years!], but "Homo Erectus" [our first record], was never meant to be released alone. We recorded 13 tracks [at the original session] in one weekend, of which we selected 6 [later 8 on the re-release] for a blues record and 5 for a psychedelic record. Those first 6 tracks became "Homo Erectus." The other 5, [what were to become] 'Ruler of the Universe', had to wait. To fool the record collectors we sold the debut as a '69 lost and found acetate excavation. Our thinking was that no one bothers with new bands anymore. "Ruler of the Universe" would then [fictionally] have been recorded in '70. That's the reason it says '71 on 'Love=Acid,Space=Hell', our second album which was to be released as third. Of the 5 acid tracks that make up 'Ruler of the Universe', 4 are interpretations of songs from bands we dig, and the fifth, 'Balls Knocking' is a blunt and loose hard rock improvisation. Let's start with the title track: 'Ruler of the Universe', originally by Terry Brooks and Strange. It's 15-minute hard-trippin' semi-religious / semi-psychotic [hey, what's the difference] guitar and space-echo-effect freak-out, pretty much tongue-in-cheek [do you new age losers really think we can communicate through telepathy with 'people' on the other side of the universe?]-but the LSD madness is clearly visible. We asked 2 friends, Luther Zevenbergen on sitar and Bobby Imtiaz, a mystical sufi from pakistan on tablas, to add some exotic swami / guru atmosphere. We performed the song live only once, at a psychedelic festival in Arnhem, all dressed in white [I was wearing a ridiculous white gown that was specially made for the record sleeve, not very comfortable for drumming as the extremely wide sleeves got in the way continuously]. What a terrible song to record though! We had to do it several times, but it was so long and monotonous, we were very glad when we finally had a proper version. The 8-minute space effect solo we performed on an old 'echopet' device, filtered through an 'electric mistress' flanger, that started to self- oscillate when you rapidly twisted a knob. We even did it [the space effect part] twice, on 2 different tracks, for extra spatial stereo effect. Then we added layers of endless guitar soloing and the vocals [with these weird cult sect lyrics]. I sang 6 times to get the choir effect. You might notice that one word ['sky'] I had to sing in falsetto for 6 times -I had to squeeze my balls for that. Track 2, 'Speed', from Ron Allen Light Show, is a tribute to the other drug we have always cherished. It's a genuine garage punker with tons of 'avora' fuzz and a very extreme and over-the-top loud 'electric mistress' flanger guitar solo. Listen to that one-psychiatric-patient's-finger out-of-tune piano that goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on... Side B starts with that old classic rock radio hit "Sunshine of Your Love" by Cream. We added some heavy guitar soloing combined with a cowbell [I need more cowbell! -ed.] for that Santana feeling. After that we continue with Deep Purple's 'Demon's Eye', [more classic rock radio!]. Right after the second solo we suddenly change the song into that last howling part of Blue Cheer's 'Parchman Farm' [more heavy dueling guitars!]. Please don't ask why we decided to choose this weird medley, but we always love to perform this version at live shows. The record finishes with 'Balls Knockin', a 7-minute improvised outburst of primitive proto-hardrock with tons of never-ending wild 'electric mistress' soloing on guitar. Our guitar player freaked out so much while we recorded the song that we were afraid he would break his new Gibson Flying V [or his own neck]. The result was so energetic that despite the fact that the bass guitar started to hum [some cable got busted during recording, you can actually hear it], and one drum microphone stopped functioning halfway, we decided to keep this version. We would never be able to equal the performance at another time! It took us many months to finish off the countless overdubs and dub effects on this record, and many more after that to mix the music. We couldn't listen to the record for a whole year after it was done! Let's hope it takes less time for you folks to dig 'Ruler of the Universe...'