THE ORIELLES + PALE BLUE EYES – CONCORDE 2, BRIGHTON 23.3.23
It’s hard to believe that I’ve been following The Orielles for an incredible seven years since they first appeared on my musical radar in 2017. They’re still a young band, but since their inception, they have always produced astonishingly ‘fresh yet retro’ music, demonstrating a knowledge and craft way beyond their years and drawing on influences from right across the musical spectrum.
The Orielles hail from Halifax in West Yorkshire (reinforced by the “EYUP” sticker on the Korg) and consist of sisters Esme Hand-Handford (bass and vocals), Siodnie Hand-Handford (drums) and Henry Carlyle Wade (guitar and vocals) but tonight they lined up as a four piece.
The last time I saw The Orielles play Brighton, it was just before the first national Covid lockdown at Chalk in support of the release of their ‘Disco Volador’ album. In fact, it was to be the final live performance I witnessed before a pandemic-induced live music drought, so it’s etched into my memory. You can read our review of that night HERE.
Happily, gigs have been ‘well and truly back’ for a while and this is one I had particularly looked forward to. Upon entering the venue, I noted attendance was sparse initially and although it filled up throughout the night, it was a long way from being a sell-out, which surprised me somewhat. Perhaps people were put off by the inclement weather this evening.
Having released their fourth album, the remarkably experimental double platter ‘Tableau’ on the 7th October 2022, the band arrived in the city at the Concorde 2 fresh from a run of US dates earlier in the month and eager to showcase their latest compositions from which the largest percentile of the set was drawn.
This was a considerable departure from their material to date, inspired in part by Brian Eno’s ‘Oblique Strategy’ cards, which can help artists break creative blocks by encouraging lateral thinking – and it certainly showed this evening!
This set was a bold combination of different genres and styles, where grungy guitars, swirling looping synths, cinematic soundscapes, samples and cosmic ambience all bravely combined with other elements to produce a veritable aural crucible into which the band bravely threw everything.
The tracks which stood out for me were the dark, moody and shifting ‘Beam/s’, ‘Chromo’ with strong overtones of 90’s shoegaze, ‘The Room’ a Radiohead meets Saint Etienne-esque composition and the final track ‘The Instrument’, which had a pulsating krautrock feel and finished the set on a high.
Unsurprisingly the tracks greeted with the most alacrity tonight both came from the the ‘Disco Volador’ album, namely ‘Bobbi’s Second World’ and ‘Space Samba (Disco Volador Theme)’ (which was segued into from the newer ‘Transmission’) both of which had the audience dancing energetically.
My only observation on their current direction is that you really shouldn’t ‘throw the baby out with the bathwater’ and I’d like to see a return to their shows of earlier material such as the sublime ‘Sugar Tastes Like Salt’, ‘I Only Bought If For The Bottle’ and ‘Let Your Dogtooth Grow’.
I’m not completely convinced if The Orielles know what niche they want to fill, if any, or what specific direction they are heading, but my feeling is that they are happy eschewing mainstream commercial success for a more creative, diverse and less holistic path and thus, despite having played a number of major outdoor festivals over the past couple of years and enjoying national airplay on the likes of 6Music, they are very much at home in venues like the Concorde 2 sharing their creative talents and music that they completely connect with.
The audience’s reaction to the performance was one of respectful appreciation more than anything else and to that end, it was an enjoyable set.
By the way, if you fancy hearing more, their eclectic ‘Live at Stoller Hall’ album recorded at Manchester’s Stoller Hall last November and released earlier this month featuring many of tonight’s tracks with full orchestral backing from the contemporary ‘Northern Session Collective’ can be downloaded HERE from Bandcamp.
The Orielles:
Esmé Dee Hand-Halford – lead vocals, bass
Henry Carlyle Wade – guitar, keys, vocals
Sidonie B Hand-Halford – drums
The Orielles setlist:
(Intro tape) ‘Nightclubbing’ by Iggy Pop
‘Memoirs Of Miso’ (from 2020 ‘Disco Volador’ album)
‘Television’ (from 2022 ‘Tableau’ album)
‘Beam/s’ (from 2022 ‘Tableau’ album)
‘Airtight’ (from 2022 ‘Tableau’ album)
‘Some Day Later’ (from 2022 ‘Tableau’ album)
‘Darkened Corners’ (from 2022 ‘Tableau’ album)
‘Bobbi’s Second World’ (from 2020 ‘Disco Volador’ album)
‘Chromo’ (from 2022 ‘Tableau’ album)
‘Whilst The Flowers Look’ (from 2020 ‘Disco Volador’ album)
‘The Room’ (from 2022 ‘Tableau’ album)
‘Drawn And Defined’ (from 2022 ‘Tableau’ album)
‘Stones’ (from 2022 ‘Tableau’ album)
‘Transmission’ (from 2022 ‘Tableau’ album)
‘Space Samba (Disco Volador Theme)’ (from 2020 ‘Disco Volador’ album)
‘Sunflower Seeds’ (from 2018 ‘Silver Dollar Moment’ album)
‘The Instrument’ (from 2022 ‘Tableau’ album)
