Ornament & Crime
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada | Established. Jan 01, 2010 | SELF
Music
Press
... "Impressively, Unbuilt does not lose its minimal edge. Ornament & Crime manages to dive head-first into experimental while maintaining simplicity. For example, “Sawhorse” features Hudson dragging a pick across the strings of his guitar, but this moment of musical exploration occurs only within the repetitive strum of a single chord." [Full review below or click link]
The two members of Vancouver’s Ornament & Crime took their name from the title of an essay published in 1910 by Austrian architect Adolf Loos. This essay criticized the use of “ornament in art,” claiming that embellishing practical objects with decoration is pointless and foolish. After listening to Unbuilt, the impact of Loos on the music of Ornament & Crime becomes clear, as the most defining characteristic of this album is its minimalism.
The first half of Unbuilt is slow-paced garage rock. Tracks like “Academy of the Birds” and “Catch Your Death” consist of simple, dirty, bluesy guitar, bare-bones drum beats, basic vocal melodies, and a complete absence of bass. At times, these songs almost sound like an early Black Keys album, just slower and much, much more simple.
On the seventh track “Tin,” however, the album takes a sharp turn towards dark and unsettling art rock. Initially, songs like “Stickabrick City” and “Perspectiva” retain elements of conventionality. But as the album progresses, so does its experimental and disturbing atmosphere. This culminates in the final track on the album, “Blind Mice,” when Suzy King and Thomas Hudson sing a variation of “Three Blind Mice” with an ominous and violent tone, which manages to be both avant-garde and disconcerting.
Impressively, Unbuilt does not lose its minimal edge. Ornament & Crime manages to dive head-first into experimental while maintaining simplicity. For example, “Sawhorse” features Hudson dragging a pick across the strings of his guitar, but this moment of musical exploration occurs only within the repetitive strum of a single chord.
But while this album remains sonically minimal, its lyrics do not. Throughout the entirety of Unbuilt, King and Hudson explore complex themes including materialism and substance abuse. On “I Owe,” for instance, the lyrics criticize the hypocrisy of materialism within religion, declaring that “their God’s money.” The lyrical content of “Dizzy Uppers” describes using drugs as a means to lessen the mundanity of life, stating, “Thought I’d take the yolks out of my eggs / Well that didn’t help me at all / I took two pills in the p.m.”
Unbuilt illustrates Ornament & Crime’s loyalty to the principles of Loos. The instrumentation and vocals (disregarding their content) lack any element of unnecessary complexity. Yet, they masterfully form interesting, enjoyable, and moving songs that bridge two very different genres.
-Hannah Toms - Discorder Magazine
What drummer Suzy King and singer and guitarist Thomas Hudson learned while on the road for six weeks is invaluable for any aspiring touring musician who, like the band, forges an independent path whether out of necessity or choice. Vancouver Weekly asked King and Hudson about their highs and lows from coast to coast, what they would do differently, and what they would do the same... - Vancouver Weekly
Peculiar amongst the odd. The duo of Thomas Hudson and Suzy King call themselves Ornament & Crime and devote their energies to creating “sparse, dramatic and mangy” sounds. All three descriptors probably apply to “Mrs. Channelnine”, a spoken word southern boogie garage rock thing. I’m not doing it justice — it has no precedent. - Mark Anthony Brennan - Ride The Tempo
" No doubt about it, Hire Horse [EP] finds Hudson and King at their enigmatic best. This is music for the intellectuals, the artists, and the freethinkers, unquestionably bringing to them its own brand of harmony – an enthralling, artful, film noir meditation on musical ingenuity." ... [full review click link]
- Danielle Dzioba - Red On Black
"Vancouver blues-rock duo Ornament & Crime are storytellers with a stripped, hard-hitting, spontaneous sound"... [full interview click link]
- Leslie Ken Chu - Vancouver Weekly
Discography
Still working on that hot first release.
Photos
Bio
>>> Watch their latest video - Several Letters <<<
Ornament & Crime, formed by Tom Hudson and Suzy King, are spontaneous performers inspired by storytelling, architecture and old films. Their music is described as avant-garde minimalism, hard-hitting and peculiar amongst the odd.
The pair first met in elementary
school, where they had both been
listening to the Pulp Fiction soundtrack, without having yet been
allowed by their parents to see the film. Meeting again years later
in art school, they eventually formed a band named after an essay
written by an architect.
UNBUILT is their first LP, they have previously released three works self-recorded to analogue tape; two EP's, Hire Horse and Burglaries and a full length demo, Houndstongue.
UNBUILT was released Sept 7th, 2017 kicking off their cross Canada
tour to Halifax.
“Form follows function” - Adolf Loos
Band Members
Links