New York City avant-rock outfit Time of Orchids began as metal-edged art-noise provocateurs before shifting toward an off-kilter, wide-ranging fusion that pulls equally from the Frank Zappa–Captain Beefheart lineage, the restrained textures of 1960s European film scores by John Barry, Kryztof Komeda, and Ennio Morricone, and the sonic approaches of their prog-metal and post-rock peers. Keyboardist Chuck Stern and guitarist Charlie Looker assembled the group, bringing in bassist Jesse Krakow and drummer Keith Abrams to round out the initial lineup. When Looker departed in 2000, Will Redmond stepped in on guitar for the quartet’s first independent release, the 2001 album Melonwhisper. That debut merged the dense experimentalism of Mike Patton’s Mr. Bungle with dub-inflected passages reminiscent of early Public Image Ltd., resulting in a fiercely aggressive statement. The follow-up, 2003’s Much Too Much Fun—marking the arrival of permanent guitarist Eric Fitzgerald—retained much of the weight while tempering the earlier abrasiveness and included guest vocals from the B-52’s’ Kate Pierson. Shortly after tracking 2004’s Early as Seen in Pace, an intricately virtuosic work of progressive hard rock, David Bodie replaced Abrams on drums. Following three self-issued albums, the band signed with John Zorn’s Tzadik Records, which issued the more introspective 2005 set Sarcast While, highlighted by contributions from trumpeter Tim Byrnes and cult dream-pop vocalist Julee Cruise. In fall 2007, the veteran progressive imprint Cuneiform Records put out the band’s fifth effort, the expansive Namesake Caution.
