Ora's LP came out on the small Tangerine label, apparently without band consent, as they thought they had just recorded a bunch of demos went away to tour, came back to find the LP released. I think Alan Hawkshaw was heavily involved with the Tangerine label.
I LOVE the Ora LP, very English sounding similar at times to Guive Me Take You by Duncan Browne. Generally it is baroque folky pop with jazzy leanings but does get 'psych' here and there, especially on Witch.
I don't like Flaming Youth, an attempt by bubblegum writers Howard/Blakey to come up with a 'progressive pop' LP, possibly a nice idea in theory, but not very good in practice. The band were just incidental on this LP really and I'm not sure they wrote much if any of it. Nice sleeve though.
Paul,the Ora album is one i like very much,and i'm sure you'll get something from it!!As has already been mentioned,it's a a mix of folk like pop in places,acoustic in places with hints of psychedelia,with the tracks Whitch,this to my ears,is a nice piece of psych,and Fly being on the more trippy side of things,but on the whole it's full of strong songs,with that period feel.The whole album plus 10 bonus tracks are included on the Byzantium box set,and in my opinion its never sounded as good.All songs are written by Jamie Rubinstein.....who dominated the writing for Byzantium too.He was obviously a talented young man at the time,who when Byzantium split worked behind the scenes in record companies,and eventually became a lawyer,which is a shame as i'd loved to have heard more off his writing,as his writing right through from Ora to the final Byzantium album was impressive.
As for Ark 2 from Flaming Youth,a real mixed bunch of songs,written by the duo behind most of DD,D,B,M & T,songs,in truth it's a bit of a hodgepodge of styles,and a bit of a mess with far too much going on making it a bit busy,but i bet their was some money spent on this album as it has a lot on it including some nice orchestration,it seems to have its feet in 2 camps,one in more pop orientated material and one in a more progressive style,which for some reason on this album makes it a rather confused mix.......the best song is the track Guide Me Orion,to me this is a splendid progressive pop delight,and im not surprised this was a single too.Don't get me wrong ,there are other good moments,its not an absolute failure,and in my opinion if you can pick up a cheap cd of it,it's worth it,i'd liked to have heard a second album,maybe with more self written material,as this album has some good ideas,but just not executed right in my opinion.
Thanks everyone for opinions and info. I just realised I have the Ora album +. As Stuart mentions, I have the Byzantium box set. I just haven't got round to playing it yet and didn't realise the Ora album was on it! Sampling the Ora album on Youtube, I can hear the baroque folky style which is very pleasing I think. Will have to check ou Flaming Youth album. At least now I know who their management was!
Ahhhh the interview with a Flaming Youth member on that very enjoyable 3 cd box British Beat volume 3,the best volume so far in this very interesting series,and a bargain price too in my opinion.Im very surprised at the sound quality on those box sets....,as the vast majority of those trancription discs have been cleaned up and what not,and on the whole sound good,much better than i was anticipating,so kudos to who ever is behind them!!!