(Credits: Far Out / Press)
The Orielles – ‘The Goyt Method’
After the release of their experimental fourth album, Tableau, on Heavenly Records last year, Halifax-born band The Orielles return with a new five-track release titled The Goyt Method. A triumph in sonic experimentation and self-sampling, the EP repurposes Tableau, borrowing and rearranging elements to form a transcendental collection of new tracks.
The first track, ‘Tableau 001’, is one of the EP’s best, a glitchy electronic number with all the sleek ethereality of Kelly Lee Owens‘ Inner Song era. It samples discordant guitar, atmospheric synths, and Esmé Dee’s pitched-up vocals collaged around the phrase, “What’s on the radio?”
The air of electronic malfunction paired with uninterrupted ethereality is a common theme on The Goyt Method, and the lead single ‘Tableau 002’ plays with a similar juxtaposition. It’s a fun track that layers IDM-inspired drum machine percussion with almost orchestral strings. The song builds to a reflective, dance-inspired effort that would mix seamlessly into the similarly downtempo beats of Doss.
In the middle of the release, splitting up the tracks named after their most recent LP comes ‘Improvisation 002’. Presumably a follow-on to the fifth track on Tableau, titled ‘The Improvisation 001’, the track is a minimal piece, swapping out electronic remixing in favour of wavering and plucked strings.
‘Tableau 003’ and ‘Tableau 004’ round out the EP with a return to layered self-referential remixing. ‘003’ places echoed vocals beneath airy, rounded synths, playful percussion, and experimental sampling. ‘004’, meanwhile, takes the sound of the EP to a lower, darker place, with distorted, pitched-down vocals, crackly samples, and ghostly synths.
The work demonstrates a range across sampling and electronic production developed through The Orielles’ openness to experimentation and their previous experience in remixing. Reflecting on the concept and production of the EP, the band stated: “Our concept for The Goyt Method was birthed from our interest in cybernetics, improvisation and experimental electronic music. We wanted to zoom out of Tableau and disconnect all the pieces, rearranging them in new ways to create variations of songs, which encapsulate the whole record.”
They continue: “We left this part of the process completely down to chance, adopting an online roulette wheel to choose our stems. This way of creating music was familiar to us from spending a lot of time remixing and record collecting, gaining an invested interest in deep listening and avant-garde electronic music.”
The EP was remixed in Goyt Mill, from which the release takes its name. The band shared: “We coined the term ‘Goytism’ or ‘to Goyt’, which was basically our way of describing the process of repurposing and resampling acoustic sounds through digital production, making them unrecognisable from their original source.” The EP artwork also displays a photo from the band’s first trip to the location.
Watch the video for ‘Tableau 001’, directed by Beck Cooley, below.
