Orgy is a group that found itself doing a disappearing-reappearing act on my personal musical radar. They made an impact way back in 1998 with their debut album, Candyass. Their fame was fueled by their cover of New Order's "Blue Monday" and their follow up single, "Stitches." Now, 7 years after their rise to fame, they are unleashing their first DVD upon an unsuspecting public.
I mentioned that they have been on and off my radar for the past few years, and until the appearance of this disk they had been off of it. This was fun way of rediscovering them. I had forgotten just how much I liked their sound.
Trans Global Spectacle is broken down into three main sections, each one chronicling a stage in the bands evolution using their three albums to show the passage of time. Once you press play and enter the three stages there will be no escape from the wanton bawdiness, zany antics, and a little bit of music that you will be subjected to.
The documentary runs about two hours and gives a clear indication of what it could be like to be on the road with these guys. The crazy stunts, the pranks, the jokes, the general wackiness. Clearly made for the fans, this is a pretty fun trip through the first seven years of the band.
We get to see them performing onstage, including their first televised appearance on MTV. We see them before and after a variety of shows over the years. We catch them on the sets of their videos. A fun aspect is that the band shot a lot of the footage themselves, as each had their own camcorder to capture the moment.
Extras include four music videos, "Blue Monday," "Stitches," "Vague," and "Fiction." I like their videos, they have this experimental electronic feeling to them. They have this David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust crossed with modern techno culture look to them. This carries through in the live footage in the documentary, the costumes, the make-up. I like this return of stage theatrics, it goes a long way to livening up the concert experience, especially if the band can back it up musically. Fortunately, Orgy seems to be able to.
Article comments
1 - Bob A. Booey
I'd lump them in with Frente, bands that did rather uninspired, by-the-book covers of New Order songs to get big radio hits but didn't really have very good original material to keep them going after that.
That is all.