Orem Owls
Index
Hel Audio
Street: 04.07
Orem Owls = Oneohtrix Point Never + Ben Best & Karl Jørgensen + Neotantrik
I appreciate the work that Hel Audio is doing, quite a bit. It is a local label supporting fringe music, such as that made by Orem Owls, with several artists regularly participating in showcases around the state—releasing albums on artfully packaged cassettes. Tape is an ideal tangible format for the music by Orem Owls, sound made to age and be stumbled across later, pieced together from multiple sources and custom audio tools. There is a tactile sense to every piece on Index—each exists as a self-contained object, yet is also well placed within the album’s sequence. Disembodied voices and fragmented rhythms wander alongside warm synth tones, resembling those that could potentially be found on worn demos for a proposed alternate score for Blade Runner. “2089” is one example of this, and could easily be coupled with closing track “7a” to convince a potential listener to order a cassette. –T.H.