the orchestra (for Now) - Plan 76 [ep]

London seven-piece The Orchestra (For Now) return with news of their eagerly awaited second EP, Plan 76. Out 31st Oct, the release follows closely on the heels of their debut EP Plan 75, which was released earlier this year to widespread plaudits.

The last couple of years have seen the band on the kind of ascent that most new acts can only dream of. They’d played the main stage at Green Man Festival, appeared at End Of The Road Festival, and played several sold-out headline dates before even officially releasing a single. Having honed their sound on the London live circuit, the band released their much-anticipated debut EP Plan 75 earlier this year igniting a fire amongst critics and their fanbase-cum-congregation alike. Capturing that same energy and passion that had made them an unmissable word of mouth success, the band sold out the Rough Trade exclusive version of their EP in less than 12 hours, earned widespread plaudits from the likes of NME, DIY, Rolling Stone, So Young, Clash, DORK, and Billboard, and sold-out their release show at London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts.

Plan 76 sees The Orchestra (For Now) continue to develop on their maximalist approach to what they have self-described as “London prog”. Combining avant-garde rock theatrics, intricate classical interplay, pastoral baroque indie, post-hardcore dynamics, jazz-tinted freakouts, and everything in between, the EP is an expert-level exercise in tension and release. The elements that made their debut a breakthrough success are still there, the compositions are unpredictable yet unmistakably hook infused, and there are droll references to pop culture and the world surrounding them, but here everything is levelled up, the underpinning fragility wrapped in a shroud of musical confidence that can only come with such wide-eyed ambition.

The band’s single “Hattrick” perfectly encapsulates their progression. The saturation and contrast have been driven up, the darker corners accentuated, their wider palette more vibrant and colourful. Labyrinthine instrumentation swells and bursts into moments of shamanic vocal power, cinematic strings, a driving rhythm section, and unrestrained guitars, before burning up and giving way to brooding, ruminative verses.

Speaking on the single, the band says “Like a lot of our songs, ‘Hattrick’ has taken many forms. It began as a sequence of sections that Joe wrote words to, and we altered it into its final shape as the narrative began to emerge from those words. It’s a series of explosions and attempts at recovery and reckoning.”

“Deplore You / Farmers Market” is marker of the journey the band have been on and of their adept use of dynamics. It was both the first song the band wrote and played live yet is a departure from their earlier released material and trademark maximalist sound. The track sees them exuviating the dense layers of instrumentation to reveal a candid and emotional track which slowly builds to the point of breaking, before unleashing the EP’s final moment of powerfully orchestrated uproar.

Speaking on the single, the band says “It’s a front facing reckoning that explores ambition and fatigue, and the strains of failure and minor success. Deplore You / Farmers Market is one of our most direct songs, so we thought stripping back and exposing ourselves was the right call, letting the song breathe; it’s an experiment in restraint, right up until we can’t keep it in.”

Going on to speak about the EP, they say “Plan 76 completes the first story we wanted to tell. It is a continuation of the themes in our first record but placing what we established there in different worlds and situations. Instrumentally speaking it is, to us, more ambitious. Not because we are playing incredibly complicated parts, but the opposite - we tried to refine rather than complicate. There are incredibly exposed moments, where we stripped the instrumentation back (which is not natural for us to do). This EP is also setting the scene for what will come next..”

The announcement of Plan 76 came midway through a summer of packed out festival performances across the UK and EU with sets at Latitude, Conges Annules, End Of The Road, Manchester / Edinburgh Psych Festival and more. already behind them. Further appearances at the likes of Sŵn Festival, Live At Leeds, Les Nuits Botanique, and Iceland Airwaves are to come this Autumn ahead of an extensive UK tour that features their biggest London headline show to date at Scala.