Orcha

Orcha is all over the place, often in listenableways. The Milwaukeequintet may have jam-band inclinations, but the group keeps things relativelyfocused on its debut CD. Lost Outin the Abyss mixes New Age acousticguitars with heavier rock sounds alongside nimble piano and bombasticorgan chords. Two percussionists add straight-up rock and more complexAfro-Latin underpinnings. It's almost as if the band offers an aural tour ofthe first half of the hippie 1970s.

Then come the lyrics and how they're vocalized.None of the five members gets a singer credit in the disc packaging,but the guy takes himself really seriously. And that can be amusingwhen he sings of the whale from which the group takes its name. Lessamusing is when the same hubris is applied to more navel-gazing subjects suchas voyaging to Atlantis and theorizing on how the whole of everything iscomprised of energy (a physicist may agree, but still…).