Henry Carlyle goes it alone with debut ‘The Ground’
The Orielles guitarist steps away from his roots to carve out his own unique sound
Photo: Press
If you’d have played me this song without telling me who it was by, I would’ve had no idea this was by one-third of The Orielles; a group who cannot be boxed into one genre, but simply described as “funky indie-pop”. They’re far from sounding related, and that can only be a good thing.
Despite it being Henry’s debut solo outing, the song isn’t by any means ‘new’: it’s been sitting on the back burner for a couple of years, in the back pocket of his mind, travelling with him to New York and then some.
Impressively, the guitar, piano, synth and vocals are all done by himself, with fellow musician Julia Bardo stepping in to lend a hand on bass, backing vocals and saxophone.
It’s not hard to tell it’s been sat on and developed for a while; with vocals reminiscent of Ian Curtis and a rhythmic, layered instrumental hanging underneath his deadpan half-talking half-singing voice, it works — and sounds nothing like what you’d expect from the guitarist of The Orielles.
Despite this being a solo single, it feels collaborative; maybe it’s the little snippets of Julia Bardo’s crisp, coy vocals, or maybe it’s something that lays within the writing process and the air miles the track has picked up over the years.
