That Martin Bramah is still usually referred to in terms of "ex-FALL guitarist" while his fabulous back catalogue with THE BLUE ORCHIDS gathers dust in a musty ante-chamber continues to mystify. Surely this isn't the blase way we treat our national treasures these days?
2002'S "A Darker Bloom" compilation (Cherry Red) was the first full-length acknowledgement of what Bramah and cohorts (often frustatingly subject to change) have achieved over a fractured and uneven fifteen years or so, and LTM's new Peel Sessions archival collection "From Severe To Serene" again dragged Bramah's sureally catchy muse back into the public domain.
Yet "The Sleeper" is the grail unearthed for Bramah aficionados, featuring the entirety of his post-1990 output with two separate bunches of Blue Orchids. The band's line-up following Martin's second spell with The Fall circa "Extricate" (1989/ early 1990) included ex-Smiths guitarist Craig Gannon and their fine "Diamond Age"/ "Moth" single is still delectable. Dense, imaginative and (gulp!) anthemic, these songs were both featured in a live show your correspondent caught at the old Town & Country 2 in London circa Spring 1991.
In typical Orchids tradition, Gannon upped sticks shortly after and the band returned to Manchester to cut the "Secret City" EP in 1992. Included in its' entirety here, the fou tracks do undeniably forge a link with the baggy Madchester scene of the early 1990s, with the sarcastic "Love Fiend" cocking a snook to the Happy Mondays louche funk and the two lengthier mixes of "NY Gargoyles" working fully-fledged indie/ dance makeovers on The Blue Orchids trademark sound. That said, also included is "Out Of Sight": a nicely nocturnal throwback to the earlier, minimal Orchids circa "Agents Of Change", and one of Bramah's most seductive songs to boot.
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But the real meat and drink here are the nine tracks comprising The Blue Orchids' proposed second album "The Sleeper." Recorded by another new line-up in a non-digital Camden studio during 1993, these songs find Bramah writing memorable, unfettered material, with powerfully sympathetic playing from his three sidekicks.
The final four tracks retain elements of the previous line up's dance/rock leanings, though the economic version of "NY Gargoyles" (with added "Superfly"-style clavinet) nails the definitive take and the punchy "Butterfly Effect" could teach Bramah's would-be employers The Inspiral Carpets a lesson or two about writing killer pop songs, whatever the chart figures may say to contradict me.
"The Sleeper"s opening five tracks, though, are probably Bramah's best batch of songs to date. Indeed, the less-cluttered version of "Diamond Age", the serenely confident "Dream Boat" and the dignified and defiant "Weird World" are all on first-name terms with genius. This crop of Orchids were excellent players too, and while these songs may lack Una Baines' spectral presence, Alastair Murphy's intuitive keyboards provide a terrific alternative foil for Bramah.
Up there with Josef K's "Sorry For Laughing" and Shack's "Waterpistol" in the gloriously unearthed treasure stakes, "The Sleeper" deliriously impresses now it's finally blinking in the daylight. All we need now is a sequel. What about it, Martin?
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