Review: CloZee at The Orange Peel
Halloween was still a couple of weeks away, but that didn’t stop the crowd at The Orange Peel from pulling out a wacky and wonderful wardrobe on Oct. 18. I spotted faux-bearskin vests, iridescent suit jackets, flowery kimonos, and enough fishnet to snag a school of anchovies. One woman even handed out tiny green alien finger puppets, each hand-decorated with a goofy grin.
The occasion? The start of a two-night Asheville run by French electronic producer Chloé Herry, aka CloZee, celebrating the July release of her latest album, Microworlds. Both performances sold out in advance, and the enthusiastic audience that turned up Wednesday was clearly ready to party.
Kicking off the night in a slightly more restrained manner was Denver-based Dreamers Delight, the stage name of one Reed Krafft. Steady, head-bobbing beats mixed with big, rumbling bass to create an atmospheric vibe, and his set kept that vibe mostly consistent throughout. Paired with video imagery of deserts, oceans, and animals, the music felt plenty uplifting.
It was also perhaps a bit too calm for what the crowd wanted, although some skittery, arpeggiated leads lent much-appreciated forward momentum to a couple of tracks. Wednesday marked the first night of Dreamers Delight on the Microworlds tour, so Krafft might still be dialing his set in. (That seemed to be the case with his visuals, which cut to a Microsoft Windows home screen no fewer than three times.)
Next up was Daily Bread, aka Atlanta-based producer Rhett Whatley. The musical intensity instantly kicked up a notch as he started spinning a set of hip-hop-inspired electronica — and in some cases actual hip-hop, as with a banging remix of DJ Unk’s “Walk it Out.”
Whatley is tremendously disciplined with his drum sounds. It seemed like no two loops in any given track were quite the same, and the beats were tightly mixed to let his vocal samples punch through with clarity.
The rest of his production is equally skilled; I especially enjoyed the way he took a slick vocoder sample from Daft Punk’s “Around the World” and recontextualized it as a molasses-thick bassline. And he’s a compelling DJ performer as well. Whatley bobbed fluidly as he tapped in tempos, triggered drum pads, and swept faders to shape the flow.
The headliner initially dialed things back, emerging with a spacey soundscape in a cloud of purple fog. But that reprieve didn’t last for long as Herry showed why she deserved the night’s top billing.
The slower starting pace gave Herry ample opportunity to showcased her intelligent production. Each track is filled with satisfying melodic lines, harmonic movement, and unusual synth tones, often complex but never cluttered. Her songwriting goes well beyond the simple build-drop structure; it’s still great for dancing, but it rewards an attentive ear as well.
Whip-crack percussion and woodblock-like tones entered to intensify the musical energy before Herry started to drop bass parts at once massive and clean, like giant steel strings set vibrating among the lasers and floodlights. As she moved through her set, the throbbing of those low tones seemed to become a rhythmic element in and of itself, adding more momentum to the set without necessarily increasing tempo.
The last song of the night pulled back yet again, as Herry told the crowdby Herry’s admission, to something slower and “more emotional.” It was beautiful, but I got the sense she was keeping something in reserve for the following night’s finale. I certainly left hoping I could attend both nights if she comes through town again for another doubleheader.
(Photo by Jason Siegel)
