Oryx and Crake

23. Oryx and Crake - Ohmpark

Oryx and Crake – Oryx and Crake

We gushed over Oryx and Crake’s “lush orchestral pop that will charm everyone it meets,” and Atlanta saw this band continue to win over fans all over the city. - Atlanta Music Guide

Atlanta's Oryx & Crake says it "strives to make music that takes traditional instruments to modern, surprising places," and while the juxtaposition of modern and traditional elements isn't a new thing, it is with Oryx & Crake a thing particularly well done.

Several of the new band's nine members spent a good many years in Savannah, and that city's flair for the literary and the dramatic bubbles up. The band's name? That's from a Margaret Atwood novel. Ryan Peoples and Rebekah Goode-Peoples are the band's married songwriting duo, with Peoples handling lead vocals and a number of instruments and Goode-Peoples on keys and, like many of the other seven members, also on backing vocals.

Peoples' high-and-lonesome wail on the track "I Could Be Anyone Anymore" taps the same vein of pathos as Jason Molina on his most woeful days, though worked through a filter that brings to mind acts as diverse as Sparklehorse and Portishead—doubly so for the latter, as the strings-and-drum-machine-heavy band also leans towards second-tier trip-hop from the '90s (Sneaker Pimps, Morcheeba, etc.). In particular, though, Oryx & Crake should appeal to Athensfolk lamenting the effective shelving of local lady Amanda Kapousouz's Tin Cup Prophette project. Oryx & Crake's precise, programmed percussion, woozy layers of strings and penchant for lyrical mantras have a lot in common with Kapousouz's winning sound.

So, consider this free (!) Flicker show a warm-up for future performances and a good chance to catch a promising band at an early stage. The "official" show celebrating the debut album's release takes place down in Atlanta on Saturday, Aug. 28 at the EARL. Joining Oryx & Crake at that ATL show: the darling Venice Is Sinking. In a nice bit of serendipitous Venn diagramism, Venice Is Sinking drummer Lucas Jensen is the man behind the photography that went up on display at Flicker last week, so take a listen, take a look. Here's to cooperation! Here's to pretty music!

Chris Hassiotis - Flagpole (Athens)

Here’s a riddle: what do a singing saw, a banjo and a coffee grinder all have in common? Can’t guess? They’re all instruments played by members of Oryx & Crake, a nine-person Atlanta psych-pop collective led by husband-and-wife Ryan Peoples and Rebekah Goode-Peoples. Tomorrow, Sat., Aug. 28, the band celebrates the release of its debut, self-titled album at The Earl, joined by Athens’ Venice Is Sinking and Atlanta’s own Book of Colors.

As they’re both teachers, Ryan and Rebekah were able to meet me for coffee in Oakhurst on a Friday afternoon in July to talk over the espresso machine roar about juggling a band and a family, gathering together talented musicians and the cutting—or, rather, grinding—edge of experimental electronics.

Julia Reidy: So tell me about your musical histories.

Ryan Peoples: Up to this point, the band that I’ve devoted the most attention to was Kiterunner in Savannah. That was where I met our cello player, Matt Jarrard. That was where we were experimenting with playing instruments differently, like he has a cello, but we wanted to make it a little far out, run it through effects and do something different with it. That combination of experimental electronics and a lot of layered harmonies and acoustic instruments, that’s kind of where we came from.
Rebekah Goode-Peoples: There’s nothing to do in Savannah, so we had a lot of time on our hands.

How long did you live in Savannah?

RGP: Three years. We were down there because Ryan was getting his MFA in sound design at SCAD.

How about you?

RGP: [laughs] I like music a lot. I don’t have any kind of musical background, really. I took piano when I was a kid, but I was not a musician. I didn’t play in bands. I just was an avid music lover. But when Ryan and I got together he was always playing guitar and writing stuff, so I just kind of wheedled my way in that way. We started writing together.
RP: You would start writing lyrics when I was playing guitar.
RGP: I’ve always written poetry, but I wasn’t really happy with it, you know? I was looking for a way to kind of push my skill set a little bit with poetry. When he’s first starting to write—it’s kind of adorable—he’ll come up with a melody on the piano or on the guitar, and then he sings, but he sings just nonsense, you now?
RP: Kind of like Sigur Rós, but not that high.
RGP: For me it’s important that I pay attention to his vowel sounds and consonants and I write around the sounds that he’s making. There’s a really natural connection between the sounds and what the song is trying to be about. So even though he’s not really saying anything, he’s saying something. I’ve just started taking on different things as time went on. Keyboard, I was running the drums, and now I’m starting to sing.

How long has this been a band, would you say?

RGP: A year?
RP: It’s hard to say; we just keep multiplying. For a while there, it was maybe three people, and it’s just kind of grown exponentially.
RGP: It was me and Ryan and then Matt Jarrard, who we convinced to move to Atlanta from Savannah because we love him so much. We did the Oryx & Crake name then, but we’d actually recorded the majority of the album before we got back to Atlanta.

How did you collect the members you have now?

RP: A lot of them are our friends. Eric Wildes I’ve known since the second grade and Anna Wildes—she’s amazing. I work with Matt Gilbert at the Art Institute of Atlanta, we’re professors there. Keith [Huff] I went to school with at SCAD, the bass player.
RGP: And Chris [Vanbrackle] we fell in love with; he’s doing other random live percussion. Since we don’t have a drum set, we do everything with electronic drums, we brought him in, and he plays anything. He’s really an amazing utility person, but he does great stuff on percussion. So he’s adding some more organic percussion now, too.
We found him in Savannah.
RP: He was the one Kiterunner fan.

You guys have been playing out a little bit. How have you found that experience? You seem to be a little bit of a different genre than what is sort of dominant right now. What do you find your place in the scene to be?

RP: Maybe what we’ve found is that people are ready for something a little different. Maybe the bands featured in the We Fun movie are a completely different thing. I guess that’s what defined Atlanta, and we didn’t even know that when we used to live here.
RGP: We knew it on some level. I didn’t know what that would mean for us as far as booking shows. I had never ever been interested in the local music scene, and I feel guilty about that now that I know what it means to support one, but growing up here and going out and everything, I never saw local bands.
RP: Well there’s diversity here now. I mean, we come across bands all the time that aren’t inside that kind of punk rock garage thing.

Have there been any bands that have been sort of kindred for you guys?

RGP: We have a lot of friendly bands.
RP: Well there’s Night Driving In Small Towns. They’ve been friends of ours from way back, since we were in Savannah. Some of our members are in other bands. Like Beautiful Little Fools shares a lot of members with us. We play with Blair Crimmins & the Hookers and Jeffrey Bützer more than we have with anybody else.
RGP: The closest person is the third band on our CD release show, Book of Colors. They have viola and violin and lots of random instrumentation, so there’re some similarities there. They’re really good. And I used to teach her! It’s not just about getting booked at The Earl. There are so many small venues now that really new, local upstart bands that nobody’s heard of can get a show and play. People can play Kavarna or WonderRoot, or the Mint Gallery, or Picaflor Studio.

You guys have a family, right? How do you find being in an active band and being a parent at the same time?

RP: Really, really hard.
RGP: Awesome. It’s all of the above.

Challenges?

RP: Obviously playing shows, and having to leave them at home. Her mom lives here in town so that makes it a little bit easier.
RGP: She’s been so kind. We book shows and we have to get mom approval before we agree. She takes the kids on a lot. It’s hard when you think about playing out of town. How would we tour with them? And we have fantasies about going on tour and getting one of my high school students to come on tour with us, that we could basically provide free travel for and then they would look after the kids in the evening so that we could play shows. We’ve seen bands do that.
RP: Sonic Youth does it.
RGP: We want to be like Sonic Youth.

How old are they?

RGP: One-and-a-half and seven. There’s an amazing positive side to it, because even though it makes it really difficult in some ways, it makes it awesome, too, because our kids are surrounded by just great, great people.
RP: Oryx & Crake is very familial.
RGP: They’re not just people that are in a band that’s like a business. We have potlucks. People will help me if I’m sick. It’s a real family. Keith, our bassist, is going to teach Sebastian how to skateboard and Chris is teaching him how to drum, so there’s musicians in and out of the house all day long. There’s always music being made. Our kids have completely grown up with music. Our baby, she was a newborn in the sling at band practice. She’ll sit on the floor with a shaker and shake in time.

What do you envision for this coming year?

RGP: Really work on the next album, right?
RP: Yeah. Really raise the bar from where we are now. We’re proud of this album, but we know we have a lot better in us.
RGP: We’ve learned so much. A lot of this material is kind of old to us now. We recorded it two years ago. It’s not that we’re done with it. We like it. We’ve just been doing it for so long that we really have a clearer vision of what we want.

What else?

RGP: Do you want to talk about what Matt plays? Matt Gilbert? His stuff is really interesting.
RP: So Matt Gilbert is pushing the electronic side of things, and we’re working together on pushing it into new territory. He, in particular, is brilliant at it. He has made a coffee grinder into a MIDI controller, so you turn it and it churns out a beat based on velocity. How fast he spins the grinder actually determines how fast the beats come, even though it’s in time. He’s doing more and more stuff like that. Then he took the hard drive out of a laptop and put it in a wooden casing. It’s like a mini silver record, and he can almost DJ on it. It spins and takes little samples of what’s playing. We’re edging more and more toward having a more true electronic and acoustic mix, which is what I wanted so long ago.
RGP: He’s like the mad professor in our band. - Creative Loafing

For the past several years, Atlanta has been known for both its equally vibrant and diverse music scene. On one end, bands like The Black Lips and Deerhunter have steadily put Atlanta rock on the national map. On the other hand, Atlanta’s hip-hop and R&B tradition has continued to prosper in 2010, with the likes of Big Boi and Janelle Monáe landing at the cross-section of popular and critical success. But for all its musical impetus, Atlanta has had a distinct lack of orchestral-pop bands able to transcend the local scene. But things change, and orchestral-electronic newcomers Oryx and Crake seem posed to become the harbingers of a new Atlanta trend.

In their short time together, Oryx and Crake have quickly transformed from a small project into a nine-piece ensemble, growing nearly as quickly as their critical acclaim from seemingly every music writer in the area. Despite the band’s ever-evolving line up, the band’s current size was by no means the original vision of front-couple Ryan Peoples and Rebekah Goode-Peoples. “We didn’t expect it to get as big as it did” Peoples reflects. “We kept meeting these people that liked what we did and we loved these people. Any given song has more than nine things happening anyway. It seemed right.”

The sonic origins of Oryx and Crake initially arose from Peoples’ unique and mixed vision. Between his background as a sound design professor and his longtime involvement in various bands dating back to his youth, Peoples finally struck gold—merging his interests into a sound reflecting both his acoustic and electronic compositional approaches.



After two years of meticulous work with his wife and cellist Matt Jarrard, Peoples finally pieced together their debut eponymous record—an album possessing a precise blend of orchestral hooks and tightly crafted synthesized sounds. The long and winding road for Peoples resulted in music that resonates as melancholic, mysterious, and hauntingly stunning.

While other large chamber-pop groups in this day and age may often appear to ride the coattails of success earned by The Arcade Fire and Sufjan Stevens, that’s far from the case with Oryx and Crake. Just listen to the first few minutes of their album opener “Fun Funeral”—a dark, looming masterpiece that rings in as one of the best-kept secrets of 2010. But where many of their orchestral counterparts remain relatively straightforward in their instrumental production, Oryx and Crake manage to distinctly create their own sound. Peoples has created a dense soundscape of beautiful acoustic arrangements, crisp electronic percussion, beautifully stark vocals, and tense moments of dynamism.

But to say that Peoples is the end-all-be-all of Oryx and Crake would be far from the truth. One of the first things noticed upon meeting the band is that Rebekah Goode-Peoples stands as the yin to his yang. From her poignant lyrics to her management of band affairs, Goode-Peoples seems to be the glue holding Oryx and Crake together. The group is also home to another husband-wife couple in Eric and Anna Wildes, on guitar and banjo respectively. Oryx and Crake is rounded out by the impeccable strings of cellist Matt Jarrard and violinist Karyn Lu, as well as the unique rhythm section of bassist Keith Huff, percussionist Chris Vanbrackle, and MIDI mastermind Matt Gilbert. This nonet is a large group indeed, but it’s one in which every member plays a necessary part in recreating the layers of layers of musical textures that comprise their overarching sound.



While Oryx and Crake offers one of the more impressive debuts in recent memory, both Ryan and Rebekah Peoples are looking forward to improving upon their initial effort. “For the first album we were hit-and-miss, trying all sorts of different directions,” Goode-Peoples remarks. “I think this time we’re approaching it with a much more coherent vision. I think we can safely say that we were hugely inspired by The Antlers’ album Hospice.”

“Well that’s the stuff we like,” Peoples adds. “We like albums.”

Oryx and Crake was about as compelling of an album as anything released in 2010. Just imagine what will happen once they manage to create a record that fits their own “coherent” vision. The future is bright for Oryx and Crake, and their chances to put Atlanta orchestral-pop on the map are even brighter.
- Consequence of Sound

November Featured Artist
Oryx and Crake

If you've been searching for beautiful music, filled with the subtlety of genius and spilling over with thoughtful lyrical content that forces you to succumb to the pleasure of sound to the point that you soar, then I've found your band.

Oryx and Crake are a 5-piece Atlanta band that have managed to create a rare sound that genuinely carries the essence of both past and present within a single song. And they do it well! The band's name is adopted from Margaret Atwood's 2003 novel themed upon dystopian and ethical matters.

The sound produced by Oryx and Crake brings to mind such a myriad of possible influences. There are hints of Sparklehorse, Portishead, Wilco, and even The Mamas and The Papas. The music holds an acoustic feel with electronic overtones accompanied by lucious vocal harmonies that can almost make you melt.

"Bed Death" starts off with an engaging cello solo and prepares the listener for what is truly revealed to be spectacular and gently inspiring."Unbound" presents us with a slightly more upbeat sound carried out with the rhythms of understated clapping and a fascinating blend of electronics and strings.

This band goes beyond offering timeless music perfectly suitable for any mood. The songs become distinctly capable of functioning as a mind-altering substance.

http://www.themoonandpluto.com/2009featuredartists.htm - The Moon and Pluto

"The band Oryx and Crake is a band with one of the most unique, spine tingling, unbelievably beautiful sounds."

"Like Sufjan Stevens, Damien Rice, Joanna Newsom? ..You Will Love Tonight's 'Locals Only' band, Oryx and Crake, Who Will Be Joining Me Live in Studio at 11:30! Their Music Will Give You Chills." - Shawn Williams, 99x

Opening the show was the hugeness of Oryx & Crake from Atlanta. Just think Arcade Fire meets Broken Social Scene, simply due to the volume of members and the sound they created. On this night in Atlanta, eight people crowded the tiny stage of the Unicorn. Fans experienced the likes of drums, guitars, violin, banjo, keyboards, etc. throughout the set. With fine voices and musicianship all around, Oryx & Crake have a promising future (http://www.myspace.com/oryxandcrakeband). - Atlanta Music Examiner, Kevin Triebsch

Oryx and Crake, the Atlanta based nine piece super group, has arrived. Led by a husband and wife team of songwriters, Ryan and Rebekah Goode Peoples, they’ve established a beautiful, unique sound. The balance is bolstered by their mini-orchestra full of traditional strings, often stirring and well composed, and the evenly balanced electric instruments that provide several strong hooks.

There’s an intriguing individual artistry that accompanies the music. The band’s one sheet has subtitled and italicized one line notes about each song (i.e. “Fun Funeral” being described with “put on your best gown for the black ball”) It’s a simple touch, but one that gives a designated aesthetic to each tune.

As a band establishing themselves and their sound, there’s bound to be a few misses. “Superlady” is the worst offender, an acoustic up-tempo tune with potential, but unraveled by irritating electronic interference throughout the song. “Lullaby #1” sounds a little bit better, but delves too far into the ethereal vibe with it’s dissonant/distorted vocals and overall feel — a distant feeling from the rest of the album.

On the other side, however, are some great songs. “Bed Death” (with the liner note “our names inscribed by tooth and nail”) hits the delicate balance perfectly, featuring exquisite strings and a catchy opening hook. “Deep Sea Diver” (“two hundred feet and my teeth are cold”) aptly captures the mental image of their subject, combining a quiet mellow tone with it’s stirring string section and an almost static/quiet harmony as if underwater.

When a band like this one comes along, all you can hope is that they’ll get their due credit. Oryx and Crake are one of the more talented ensembles to emerge in recent years and with some fine tuning and exposure, should be a name to hear for quite a while.
- Stereo Subversion

Oryx and Crake are a large band from Atlanta, Georgia. How large? How about 9 members large…. Yeah, damn is right.

Check out their stunning song “Fun Funeral”, and try not to be moved or affected in anyway. It’s an incredibly moving song thanks to haunting strings and emotional depth brought out by careful use of their instruments. I hear many different influences in Oryx and Crake. Lead singer Ryan Peoples vocals + the dark atmosphere remind me of Radiohead. Their is clearly an emotional depth to their music. I don’t think you should be without it: - We All Want Someone to Shout For

Oryx and Crake is a 9-person band from Atlanta, GA whose lyrical beauty and musical complexity contains “hints of Sparklehorse, Portishead, Wilco, and even The Mamas and The Papas” (The Moon and Pluto), but with a sound that is their own. Normally a 9-piece band has the potential of sounding chaotic, but not this band. They’ve got a good balance going on. You should try to make it out to The Earl to catch them at their CD Release Show. Somebody will be there representing TBI for sure. - The Blue Indian

We have found our favorite Atlanta band of 2010. It’s Oryx and Crake.

They floated us a demo track from their forthcoming LP in the fall and we’d run into them around town, so we decided to show up for their show at the Earl on Saturday night. We were blown away. The songwriting and musicianship far exceeded our expectations.

They started the evening strong with “I Could Be Anyone” moved quickly through their eight song set highlighted for us by “Pretty How Towns” and ending with frontman Ryan Peoples on the singing saw and Matt Gilbert doing something incredible with a little attachment to his macbook on “Lullaby #1.” There is so much we could say about this band right now but we know that this is not the last time we will be writing about them, so we’re keeping this one short. Look for a debut full length later this spring. It is now on our short list of most anticipated records of the new year.

Check out this early version of “Pretty How Towns” below. If we have a sense of Ryan Peoples and this band, the final version will be mixed just a bit different and sound even better.

Listen: Oryx & Crake – Pretty How Towns

What follows are some great shots of the band in action courtesy of Kasey L. Breedlove of HomeSlice Photography. - Atlanta's A-List

These days, it seems most musicians are competing with one another to make the most stripped down, shittily produced, disposal garbage they can. Things like knowing how to play your instrument or having a shred of talent have become an afterthought. Because of this, I find myself moving towards more complex music, and my genre of choice for the moment is increasingly becoming orchestral pop, which in recent indie times seems to be the ying to the lo-fi yang.

Looking locally, we actually have quite an impressive contingent of artists that could broadly be grouped under the orchestral pop banner, such as Tealights or Little Tybee. But after listening to Oryx & Crake’s debut, self-titled record over and over again, I think I have a new Atlanta fave.

I’ve heard many bands, hoping to create something timeless yet relevant, try to blend conservative music with more modern ideas, but rarely have I heard it achieved this successfully. Oryx & Crake are sort of like Castanets, but with more memorable songwriting. It’s surprising to find a local debut album that is so stacked on every side of the equation, containing beautiful songs, sharp production, and so many cool tricks intricately woven throughout. It’s a legitimate contender for Atlanta record of the year right now.

It comes out August 28, and that night they will be playing a release show at The Earl with fellow orch-popsters Venice Is Sinking and Book Of Colors. I can’t wait.
- Ohm Park

The first track on the self-titled debut from Atlanta’s Oryx & Crake transports the listener to a melancholy place with its cello, guitar, and plaintive vocals of leader Ryan Peoples. Then the guitar gets fuzzy, harmonies are layered in, and the clouds part on the beautiful “Fun Funeral.”

The 9-person band has created a dazzling debut that is difficult to label. Among other things, instruments include guitar, bass, banjo, cello, electronic drums, a homemade midi, and a toy piano. Combine these with Peoples’ smooth and striking vocals harmonized with bandmates (including wife Rebekah Goode-Peoples) and deeply interesting lyrics and you have the magic that is Oryx & Crake.

Named after the Margret Atwood novel, Oryx & Crake have quickly become the buzz around Atlanta. Intentionally avoiding the easy hook that would guarantee radio play, O+C instead pursue an eclectic and uniquely stunning piece of work that should be on the radio.

“Bed Death” is at once a simple and complex piece with harmonies, effects, and a spooky bass line throughout. It’s the sort of hypnotic song that you’ll find yourself humming and singing hours later (“Bring it on back! / Bring it on back!”). Falling in the middle of the tracks are two catchy gems. “Superlady” starts off sounding like a five-year-old playing with the reel to reel but quickly gets mature, while “Pretty How Towns” is a countrified piece of work showcasing some nice banjo.

In the gorgeous “Unbound,” Peoples sings “Everyone is so tired of lugging you around / Everyone is so tired of you dragging us down.” This could be describing one of several possible stories, but seems to be an ode to an abusive parent (“The wooden spoon you used on us has broken.”). With hand claps keeping the beat, “Unbound” is a standout track. “Lullaby No. 1” ends the disc on a mellow note, sounding a bit like a 60’s Beach Boys ballad, but soon evolving into signature O+C, with the addition of more instruments and more personality.

After a few listens, this superb debut sounds like something from a band who have paid their dues; whose time has come. Rarely has a first outing been so impressive. It takes most groups four or five records into their career to achieve such a solid accomplishment. Each of the nine songs on this self-titled debut has its own traits and tells a different story. This does not sound like anything else out there right now. That’s why music lovers owe it to themselves to discover O+C now. This group of musicians, if they so desire, will be around for quite sometime.

You can find the new Oryx & Crake on iTunes and more than likely be able to purchase the CD at the release party on August 28 at the EARL in Atlanta. You owe it to yourself to be there. Tickets can be found at Ticket Alternative or at the door. - Atlanta Music Examiner, Kevin Triebsch

I still get excited about new music – not as much as I once did – but it still happens. More times than not these days a song, more than an artist, strike the love-at-first-heard chord. So when I find a band that gets me excited, I feel like a love-struck teenager …

Let me introduce you to my newest crush: Oryx + Crake

The nine-piece collective is based out of Atlanta and is fronted by the husband and wife due of Ryan Peoples and Rebekah Goode-Peoples. Due to the size of the band, and the multi-layered tracks, many people will immediately made comparisons to Broken Social Scene, The Decemberists or the Arcade Fire. To me, they remind me much more of Midlake, for whom my love is well noted.

But Oryx + Crake don’t really sound like any of those bands – which is the great thing about them. With well written lyrics with some strings, an occasional banjo, a few synth bleeps, varied percussion usage and well-placed harmony the band creates a symphony of sound.

If you want to find out more about the band, visit their Web site: http://www.oryxandcrakeband.com/.

And don’t be surprised if you hear more about this band sooner than later. - Dead Journalist