“Inspired by the rise and fall of the beautiful Edie Sedgwick.”
So says the liner notes on this latest EP release from Paradise Range, a band rooted in the Thuringian green heart of Germany.
Paradise Range excel at crafting their unique blend of “electronic psych rock”.
Michael Böerner (MPC 2000, Guitar, Efx) and Lucas Hotop (Organ, Synth, Bass, Efx), exist under the aegis of their “art for art’s sake” banner.
Their mantra – “PROFESSIONALISATION IS KILLING ART”, defines their collective oeuvre.
Taking it’s cue from the 1965 Factory underground film, ‘Poor Little Rich Girl’ is a window on the troubled world of heiress, socialite and Warhol “Superstar”, Edie Sedgwick.
‘Poor’, from it’s sampled subject spoken intro, evokes a sugared melancholy. Even if you’d somehow managed, not to know who Edie Sedgwick was, hearing this sparse, fractured minimalism, alludes to the torment of the celebrated ‘Femme Fatale’; ‘Little’, continues the downward spiral, albeit to a richly textured, cinemascopic backdrop; ‘Rich’, weaves a mischievous web of growing fear and paranoia, the discordant “lust for life”, a dripping irony, ultimately extinguishing life itself; Closing segment, ‘Girl’, intones a repetitious portent, upbeat patterns of joyous, inevitable self-destruction…
The initial, accidentally(?) out of focus first reel of the film, was perhaps a metaphor for Edie’s nebulous reality.
Paradise Range continue to blur those edges, their provocative, existential musings, defy categorisation, leaving everything up for grabs.
As with previous EP release ‘Pinea Candy‘, the Bandcamp release of ‘Songs for Edie S.‘ comes as a custom hand coloured, limited edition Compact Disc.
Paradise Range also recently released the album, ‘Circles in the Wood‘ as a limited edition cassette – a challenging, sculpted sonic soundscape, delving into the uncharted depths of the unknown.
‘Songs for Edie S.’ continues Paradise Range’s avant-garde aesthetic. Their experimental ambience, imbued within the vanguard of an embracive, and again thankfully, relevant counterculture…
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