Yordan Orchestra

Yordan Orchestra is a new Dutch psychedelic indie rock band and this 29-minute EP is their first release. The band’s leader, singer/guitarist Jack Aleister has previously been in bands Angina Pectoris, JAG and Mighty D. Yordan Orchestra gets its influences from The Beatles and Bowie to Brian Jonestown Massacre and Sonic Youth. Some of the stuff is quite catchy and even radio-friendly, but they also have a more experimental, artistic side plus jamming is part of their live show. “Käpt’n El, HanslG”, the opener, is a perfect example of a great, melodic, melancholic psych pop tune with some 60’s vibes. The vocals are closer to 90’s UK indie rock, though. The more I listen to this song, the more I like it, especially the chorus that also has those wonderful bell sounds. “Faced You in A Neon Light” is a bit wilder piece with some post punk feel and saxophone. Not bad at all. “RMDK” is a beautiful, melancholic ballad with a bit more experimental ending. “Washington Z (Zodiac Fullhorn Set Monarch)” is a slow, dark piece where the singer screams out some of the lyrics. Also some psychedelic effects on this one. “Marjolyne” is sort of art pop with some orchestration, theatrics and experimental edge. The last piece “T-Borne Egg” starts off instrumentally and very tranquilly and transports your mind into some other, strange place. After about five minutes of silence there are still a couple of minutes of music that sounds like jamming, although there are also vocals. This is a pretty weird ending for this quite interesting EP. Let’s see what the full-length will be like. - Bad Acid

So. Beatmag has been away for a half a year and now we return looking very different but let’s not fuss, eh, let’s just review an album of bizarre psychedelica, instead, to get our hand back in. ‘Psych Introduxeon’ arrived at Beatmag Mansions with no info but a snapshot of a sallow pallid dude with sunken stoned eyes. This, we must presume, is Jack Aleister, leader of Yordan Orchestra, a latterday prog-psychedelic outfit from Holland whose concerts are sprawling happenings, heavy with the whiff of a druggier bygone age. Taking their cue from the Polyphonic Spree, who they’ve supported in concert, Yordan Orchestra hurl a mass of instruments into their melodramatic head music. The album has traditional rock leanings, but then the brass and cellos join in for a streak of howling ballads redolent of both Arthur Lee’s Love (for their musical ambition) and early Robyn Hitchcock (for their wilful but tuneful oddness). Like a baroque, burlesque and grungier version of early ’70s Pink Floyd, Yordan Orchestra wear their lysergic attitude loudly  – announcing they have “mushrooms to try” on ‘Faced You In A Neon Light’  – but retain a core of approachable, melodic musical experimentalism that certain media-celebrated British bands would do well to emulate. - Beatmag

A fairly short debut album (Almost half hour, with a break of the final track) that is in return, rich in events and textures, and it all works highly targeted. Dutch Yordan Orchestra has created a highly modernized form of psychedelia, in a sound that is both Spartan and rich.
Jack Aleister plays several instruments on this record, but it is particularly the soulful, almost
sorrowful vocals of his that truly gives Psych Introduxeon its character. A piece of surprisingly original psychedelia. - Tarkus / Norway