Travis Orbin (Darkest Hour) Releases New Jazz/Fusion/Orchestra/Weird/Awesome Solo Album

That Travis Orbin is a talented fellow shouldn’t catch anyone by surprise: before his current gig in Darkest Hour, the skinsman lent his skills to Periphery, Sky Eats Airplane and others.

What I didn’t know is that he’s also released quite a bit of solo material, and that it’s pretty far out there! That shouldn’t be much of a shocker either — side/solo projects are de rigueur these days, and musicians often utilize them to branch out from the music they perform in their “day job” bands — but whew, this I was not expecting!

Orbin’s latest, Silly String II, is quite the exploratory adventure in sounds. It’s all over the place — jazz, fusion, rock, metal, orchestral — but in the best way possible, melding a whole bunch of sonic textures into a cohesive approach that I’d best describe as “Zappa goes metal.” Orbin plays the drums (duh) while a whole host of guests handle the other instruments, including Cameron McLellan (bass, Protest the Hero) and Ben Eller (guitar, the internet). If you dig things proggy and weird, well boy, have we got something for you.

Fans of Mestis, T.R.A.M., Trioscapes and the like really oughta love this stuff. Check out a playthrough of a couple of album tracks below, and stream/purchase Silly String II via Bandcamp.