Robohands

Oranj is a 14 track LP, recorded in 2025 between Chicago’s Rax Trax studios and Dock Street Studios in London, Andy Baxter taking on drums, keys, bass guitar with long time collaborator Francesca Uberti joining on Rhodes piano for four tracks. Featuring mix engineering from Hackney Recording Studio’s Sean Woodlock (4 songs) and by Lilac Lab’s Shawn Clendening in Chicago (10 songs).

Partly an ode to the inventors of analog recording equipment and electric instruments in the middle of the 20th Century, Oranj features valve driven outboard sounds, thudding 1960’s Fender Jazz bass, Fender Twin Reverb guitar amps and a real vintage Hammond organ with rotating Leslie speaker cabinet. In total the record features equipment from the 1950s through to the current year, but with an emphasis on sounds found on classic jazz fusion records from the 1960s/1970s, and film soundtracks from the late 1970s and 80s.

Oranj is open and explorative with tracks such as “Leonid The Athlete” feeling complete and intentional, yet spaced out and distant. At times Frenetic such as the uptempo “Achilles”, and other times slow and refrained “Regular Exercise”, the record moves between textures, with the differing mix engineering styles of Shawn and Sean contrasting one another. An array of influences are evident with “1989” resembling a late 90s Boards of Canada release, while “One Good Deed Everyday” sounds reminiscent of a stripped back Robert Glasper piece. Modern jazz inspired open drum solo “Recreation” sits in the middle of the album to end side A of the record, with Side B taking a turn into more abstract sound creation with experimental tracks such as “New Era” and “Object”.

Multiple tracks where recorded to two inch reel to reel tape machines such as the Otari MX5050 and the Tascam 22b for added saturation and vintage warmth. The 6th album in a series of 7, the Robohands project moves into more risk taking live and spontaneous direction with Oranj, and sonically it sits as the most raw and defiant sounding record so far.