by Jo Higgs

Finding success with your band is, in most ways, an incredibly positive thing, but one can just imagine it makes breaking into the world of solo musicianship all the more daunting – having to break away from a recognisably functional formula and tear down the protective barrier of finding safety in numbers.

The Orielles’ guitarist, Henry Carlyle-Wade, dropping the latter half of his double-barrelled surname for his solo act, displays none of the aforementioned anxieties on his debut track, The Ground. No doubt, the existentialism-seeped lyrics can be interpreted in no shortage of ways, perhaps as to musical direction, but the sheer confidence and ballsy afront to traditional song-structures would hint otherwise. 

It’s a six-minute journey that harkens upon the word ‘epic’ regardless of fear of clichés. The run time takes the listener from softly chiming synths and saccharinely chiselling lead guitar to fuzzy wonderment and the most chantable of vocal performances with a whole world of sounds between. Frequent collaborator, Julia Bardo, sounds as breezily cool as ever, providing a grounding point of reference even as the song grows into a noisy rapture for the last couple of minutes. 

The future of Carlyle is bright and beckoning on several fronts, and, at this point, the best he can do is to allow his great talent to take him wherever it does. If The Ground is the fruits of natural movement so far, the world will be ecstatic about the potential for more.

If you’d like to support us by subscribing to our zine, click here – it’s just £6 a year for four copies (inc p&p).