THE ORIELLES + THICK DRIZZLE – KOMEDIA STUDIO, BRIGHTON 6.5.24
This May, the much-loved Brighton institution Komedia celebrates its 30th birthday with a week of special events, which included a stunning intimate performance by The Orielles.
Hailing originally from Halifax, The Orielles are sisters Esme Dee Hand-Halford on bass and vocals, Sidonie Hand-Halford on drums with Henry Carlyle Wade on guitar and vocals. For their live show the trio were joined by Amelia Kidd on keyboards and synths.
The Orielles opened with an atmospheric, almost understated number ‘To Offer, To Erase’ which built impressively. The tempo increased on their second track, ‘The Room’. Esme’s soft vocals to upbeat electronic dance music on this song had similarities to the likes of PVA.
With Henry swapping synth for his usual guitar for ‘The Room’, this showed the different styles and stage presence of Henry and bassist Esme. While Esme appeared laid back, Henry was much more frantic in his movements and playing style. Those contrasting styles were a feature of their performance and they complemented each other perfectly.
Early in their set, Henry perfectly summed up the evening, saying, “We’re going down deeper into the layers and we’ll take you with us.”
Most of The Orielles’s set was taken from their experimental double album ‘Tableau’ (released on Heavenly Recordings in 2022). Consequently, The Orielles used more holistic jazz practices, electronica, experimental tape loop methods and otherworldly autotuned vocal sounds, than previous times I’ve seen them play live. Amelia’s contribution on keyboards and synths added electronica and at times a disco sound, which was key to their striking performance.
As well as the use of autotuning technology, Esme showed a wider range of vocal styles across the set, which included some snippets of spoken word, plus an ethereal beauty on songs such as ‘Airtight’ and ‘Transmission’. Henry took lead vocals on ‘Darkened Corners’. The dual vocals later in the track worked well.
Almost hidden at the back of the small Komedia Studio stage, Sidonie also mixed things up on drums. As well as giving a foundation to the guitarists, she often cleverly set the tempo ahead of the others. On the quieter parts, she swapped her regular drumsticks to play cymbals with what looked like giant cotton buds.
There were still their lo-fi DIY indie origins from their debut album, ‘Silver Dollar Moment’. After ‘Henry’s Pocket’, Henry asked if the audience recognized it. It wasn’t just on that early track, but throughout their set The Orielles managed to gloriously strike that balance between dance mixed with indie and experimental styles. Something that’s synonymous with their new home of Manchester.
As The Orielles went into their back catalogue for a couple of songs, The Komedia crowd instantly recognized Esme’s bass line on ‘Bobbi’s Second World’. It got one of the loudest cheers of the night. Its funky groove and lo-fi dance feel got even more people dancing.
Afterwards Henry joked “We’re trapped on stage, so act like we’ve gone off and come back for an encore.” The crowd played along, cheering loudly as Henry added “We’re back now.”
‘Come Down On Jupiter’ started with its immediately identifiable spacey themed intro. There was clever instrumental interplay with Henry’s fast intricate guitar and Esme’s funky bass lines. Both sped up to match Sidonie’s drums with Amelia adding exciting synth effects to the mix.
The final number of the evening ‘The Instrument’ started with Sidonie’s more prominent drums. The track got progressively faster and louder, with more synth sounds added. A fitting way to end a special show.
It was the best performance from The Orielles I’ve had the pleasure to see, more varied and sophisticated, while keeping their freshness and indie dance feel. The new material from their 2022 ‘Tableau’ album worked much better live this time around. It was delivered with more assurance and confidence. I guess from perfecting playing it live since its release. Those multi-layered songs took the Brighton crowd with them and kept them captivated for over an hour. Henry was spot on about taking the audience through the layers of their sound. An audio journey which I, and from what I saw everybody at Komedia, (including HotWax’s Alfie Sayers), thoroughly enjoyed.
The Orielles:
Esmé Dee Hand-Halford – lead vocals, bass
Sidonie B Hand-Halford – drums
Henry Carlyle Wade – guitar, synth, vocals
Amelia Kidd – keyboard, synth
The Orielles setlist:
‘To Offer, To Erase’ (from 2022 ‘Tableau’ album)
‘The Room’ (from 2022 ‘Tableau’ album)
‘Television’ (from 2022 ‘Tableau’ album)
‘Drawn And Define’ (from 2022 ‘Tableau’ album)
‘Airtight’ (from 2022 ‘Tableau’ album)
‘Some Day Later’ (from 2022 ‘Tableau’ album)
‘Henry’s Pocket’ (from 2018 ‘Silver Dollar Moment’ album)
‘Beam/s’ (from 2022 ‘Tableau’ album)
‘Darkened Corners’ (from 2022 ‘Tableau’ album)
‘Stones’ (from 2022 ‘Tableau’ album)
‘Transmission’ (from 2022 ‘Tableau’ album)
‘Chromo II’ (from 2022 ‘Tableau’ album)
‘Bobbi’s Second World’ (from 2020 ‘Disco Volador’ album)
‘Come Down On Jupiter’ (from 2020 ‘Disco Volador’ album)
‘The Instrument’ (from 2022 ‘Tableau’ album)
Support this evening came from Thick Drizzle which is the solo side-project of South London band Dry Cleaning’s Tom Dowse. During his set, Thick Drizzle switched between intricate, finger-picked guitar and electronics. His guitar style had a very folky feel, while the electronic numbers were very atmospheric and moody. His sweeping vocals worked well paired with both his acoustic guitar and electronic sounds.
Thick Drizzle joked about his use of cassette tapes and misbehaving guitar, which kept falling over when he switched to his tapes. Nostalgically, he shared “Using tapes is inefficient, but sick. But just beware, this one may be ‘Now 28’”. He added later “It’s like the old days, when you looked up gig listings on Ceefax.” On the final number the 4-track tape machine wasn’t working. As he took out the tape, he said how he now regretted having bought it on eBay from somebody in Glasgow too far away to return it. Undeterred he swapped back to his guitar for the final number.
Musically it was an interesting and entertaining set, helped by Tom’s dry sense of humour and interaction with the audience.
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