The Orchestra (For Now) at YES
Johnny James, Managing EditorBook now
The Orchestra (For Now)
Always double check opening hours with the venue before making a special visit.
When Isaac Wood left Black Country, New Road, the band flipped the switch from unhinged post-rock to something more pastoral and pretty. A hole gaped open in London’s underground. Where was that strong hit of jazz-splattered, klezmer-tinged pop-rock-classical maximalism when you needed one?
When we first caught The Orchestra (For Now) at Sounds From The Other City, the thrill of those early Black Country New Road gigs came right back. By the time we caught them again at Psych Fest, they were bringing something of their own to the table. Where BC,NR went light, The Orchestra (For Now) appear to be going dark. And we’re all for it.
The past couple of years have seen them catch the kind of hype emerging bands dream of. Before their first single was even out, they’d already hit Green Man’s main stage, appeared at End of the Road, and sold out headline shows across the UK.
Their debut EP Plan 75 was an audacious tangle of avant-rock theatrics, classical intricacy and post-hardcore catharsis – what they call “London prog”. EP number two, naturally titled Plan 76, is set to dial everything up. We’ve only had one single so far, but it confirms what we saw at their recent Psych Fest set: Darker waters. More chaos, more screams, more weirdness. But all set against contemplative, pretty sections that reveal why the seven-member band call themselves an orchestra.
That lead single ‘Hattrick’ captures that yin and yang perfectly. Its saturation and contrast are pushed to the limit – darker corners deepened, brighter ones gleaming. Labyrinthine instrumentation bursts into moments of shamanic vocal power, cinematic strings and unrestrained guitars, then exhales into moments of brooding reflection. The chaos feeds the beauty, the beauty sharpens the chaos.
“It’s more ambitious,” says singer and keys player Joe Scarisbrick, “not because we’re playing incredibly complicated parts, but because we’ve tried to refine rather than complicate. There are incredibly exposed moments… and it sets the scene for what comes next.” Genuinely, we can’t wait to see what that is.
