Released October 1988 I Am Kurious Oranj
(1988) Seminal Live
(1989) Release date 24 October 1988 | Length 57:01 Artist The Fall Label RCA Records | |
 | ||
Recorded 1988 at: Suite 16 Studios, Rochdale, England; Edinburgh Festival, Edinburgh, Scotland Genres Rock music, Post-punk, Alternative rock Producers Ian Broudie, Mark E. Smith Similar The Fall albums, Rock music albums | ||
The fall big new prinz
I Am Kurious Oranj is the eleventh studio album by English post-punk band The Fall. It was released in October 1988 through record label Beggars Banquet.
Contents
- The fall big new prinz
- The fall wrong place right time i am kurious oranj
- Background
- Critical reception
- Track listing
- Original UK CDcassette version
- Personnel
- Songs
- References
The release of I Am Kurious Oranj came at the end of a relatively successful year for the group, which had also seen the release of an "accessible" album, The Frenz Experiment, and a handful of singles in the UK charts. A live version of the album recorded during at one of the Edinburgh Festival performances of the ballet was belatedly issued in 2000 as I Am as Pure as Oranj.
The fall wrong place right time i am kurious oranj
Background
I Am Kurious Oranj was intended as the soundtrack for the ballet I Am Curious, Orange, produced by contemporary dance group Michael Clark & Company, and loosely based on the 300th anniversary of William of Orange's ascension to the English throne. The album combines studio recordings with tracks recorded live during performances in Edinburgh in June 1988.
The opening song "New Big Prinz" (as well as its alternative version, "Big New Priest") is based on "Hip Priest" from the group's 1982 album Hex Enduction Hour; the original track was also used in the ballet as a backing tape. "Jerusalem" is an adaptation of William Blake's hymn using Hubert Parry's original music (although Parry does not appear in the credits). "Last Nacht" is a remix of "Bremen Nacht" from the group's previous album, The Frenz Experiment.
"Dead Beat Descendant" was written for the ballet and performed live, but did not make the album. It was later re-recorded and released as a track on the Seminal Live compilation.
I Am Kurious Oranj's title is derived from Swedish director Vilgot Sjöman's films I Am Curious (Yellow) (1967) and I Am Curious (Blue) (1968). It appears as I Am Kurious, Oranj on some packaging formats.
Critical reception
I Am Kurious Oranj was critically well received at the time. NME wrote "[The Fall have] retained the power to surprise, to provoke and occasionally outrage that only the Smiths could pretend to possess in the '80s." A later review of the album by AllMusic, however, is more indifferent, opining, "As a cohesive Fall album it fails [...] I Am Kurious Oranj would have been more interesting to see than hear."
Track listing
In common with other albums released through Beggars Banquet Records by the Fall, I Am Kurious Oranj featured a different track listing across the various formats on which it was originally released. In addition to extra tracks "Guide Me Soft" and "Big New Priest", the UK CD featured several alternative and extended versions of songs (tracks 3, 5, 7, 8 and 12). In 2013, Beggars remastered and reissued the album on CD as a part of the 5 Albums box set; the new edition used the CD mixes reordered according to the vinyl track order, with extra tracks and alternate vinyl mixes added as bonus tracks.
Original UK CD/cassette version
Note: "Van Plague?" is listed as "Van Plague" on the cassette edition.Personnel
Songs
1New Big Prinz3:26
2Overture From "I Am Curious - Orange"2:49
3Dog Is Life / Jerusalem7:25