It’s only been two years since the release of the first album from Saigon Kick’s guitarist, Jason Bieler. Containing an eccentric mix of music accompanied by a star-studded cast of other musicians, Bieler created an experimental medley of rock and progressive sounds. Now Bieler is back with the rest of The Baron Von Bielski Orchestra to do it again and delve even further into the peculiar sounds previously explored. While the debut dipped its toes into the eccentricity, it seems the band are looking to fully submerge. The main question lingers, whether it is odd for art’s sake or just odd for odd’s sake.
‘Bombay’ opens the album up, slowly bringing you into the fold, the quirky sounds and elements are there, but they’re muffled, dampened to gradually introduce the listener into the album. A combination of eighties rock combined with the more progressive elements of Devin Townsend’s material comes forward in the opening track, creating this confident strange bravado, almost as if you’re being entertained by a host at a circus. It’s a bit kooky, but the bold guitars and domineering assertiveness of Bieler’s voice pushes that to the side. It isn’t until a minute into the track that the true oddities come to life, synthy bubble-like sounds swirl around as layers of Bieler’s vocals swarm before heading head-first into that hard rock riff straight back into the action. It’s truly a feat of art being able to mix the seemingly polar opposite sounds and merge them to create something wholly new & unique.
Once into the thick of the album, the mayhem just doesn’t end. What is most likely intentional is the musical whiplash transitioning from song to song throughout the album. The third track ‘Heathens’ contains some of the brashest, boldest guitar riffs from across the album, showing off all the swagger that a 1980s hard-rock song can muster, before transitioning to ‘Mexico’ and ‘Birds of Prey’ which could be better described as being more in the lane of Wish You Were Here era Pink Floyd, scaling back all the machismo, for a more relaxed, psychedelic and progressive sound – acoustic guitars taking up centre-stage rather than electric.
Then out of nowhere comes ‘Flying Monkeys’ a track beginning with a monkey crying out to be joined instantly by this gradually speeding up riff as Bieler matches each note with a syllable of the lyrics, creating this almost unhinged, insanity that is bound to make your heart beat at least three-times its regular rhythm. As mentioned earlier, this seems completely intentional throughout, the album never lets the listener rest for a moment before switching up on the next track with a different variety of sounds and influences.
For an album clocking in at over an hour, this album could be looked on as being a bit of a slog to get through, however, the sheer inventiveness of the music, and Bieler’s knack for the weird, strange, and odd will have you captivated from start to finish. Even when the band go even further into the zany aspects of the debut, there’s no point at which it just sounds ridiculous or overstays its welcome. This is a band that all progressive rock, hard rock, and in general rock fans need to keep an eye on as it seems like Jason Bieler is only just getting started with this project.
Buy the album here:
7 / 10
CHARLIE HILL