For everyone who was lucky enough to catch The Orielles’ sold-out show at Foundry on March 31st, it was hard not to leave the gig in complete awe of the Halifax threesome. Surprisingly, they played Foundry’s small room, which was packed full of a mixture of Music Culture Society members and BBC Radio 6 dads, making for a harmonious crowd.
Formed during their teenage years, sisters Esme and Sidonie Hand-Halford, along with their family friend Henry Carlyle Wade, began playing together out of a mutual love of bands such as Sonic Youth, Stereolab and a desire to make great music. Now signed to London-based indie record label, Heavenly Recordings, which boasts artists such as Confidence Man, Saint Etienne and Katy J Pearson, the band continue to develop their sound both on and off the stage.
A trio who refuse to keep doing what has seemingly worked for them in the past, their brilliant fourth album, Tableau, released last year, represented a move away from their early disco/indie pop style which produced some of their most acclaimed songs, such as ‘Sugar Tastes Like Salt’, and ‘Bobbie’s Second World’. Their new material possesses a more dark and elliptical sound, aided by a more explorative writing process, deploying devices such as Brian Eno’s legendary Oblique Strategy Cards to produce more experimental and complex compositions.
This sound translated well onto the stage, incorporating live sampling and intense bouts of feedback to create beautifully dissonant crescendos in songs such as ‘Beam/s’ and ‘The Instrument’. This chaotic mixture of feedback, synths and altered vocals did not always reach the level of cohesion in their recorded versions, however, to the band’s credit, their live songs contained new and interesting variations on the ideas explored in their recorded discography.
Their more demanding new material was also matched well with their bigger hits, which were interspersed across the show and provided more direct melodies in contrast to the more experimental riffs of Tableau. Their rendition of ‘Sunflower Seeds’ was particularly powerful in this regard, lending itself well to the band’s more expanded soundscape.
Overall, this was one of our more positive trips to Foundry – no offence to Poptarts. As the lights went down and the audience filtered out into the drizzly Sheffield night there was the general buzz and mutterings characteristic of a successful gig. The Orielles are definitely a band to keep an eye on as they continue to explore new sounds both in and out of the studio.
