B-Side Guys

Montreal duo Hansom Ēli delivers a fever dream of desire and consequence in “ORANGE,” a standout track from their debut album “SIP.” Released in September 2024, this experimental electronic offering reveals siblings Camille and Alexy Guérer at their most uncompromising, crafting a soundscape that pulses between seduction and warning.

The production immediately establishes duality—trip-hop beats create hypnotic grounding while experimental electronic elements introduce unpredictable tensions. This musical contrast perfectly mirrors the lyrical exploration of love as simultaneously “glorious” and “challenging.” When Camille sings “Colour orange in your black hair/Heat like orange, never felt like before,” the titular color becomes both visual signifier and emotional temperature, suggesting passion that burns beyond sustainability.

Most striking is the track’s unflinching physicality. The opening lines “You break your neck/Bones on fire” establish bodily risk from the outset, while references to “Heat the foil” and “Baby’s first rave/She scored a hit” introduce substance metaphors that blur the line between chemical and emotional dependencies. These references aren’t merely provocative—they serve the song’s central premise that intense connection can be both revelatory and destructive.

The vocal delivery shifts between whispered intimacy and assertive declaration, particularly effective when Camille poses the question, “Are you for real or an angel?” This ambiguity about the lover’s nature—savior or hallucination—creates the song’s central tension. By the final verse, this uncertainty resolves into the declarative warning: “I’m an angel/You’re in fucking danger,” suggesting a reversal of vulnerability between participants.

For a Montreal-based duo whose background encompasses everything from folk to R&B, “ORANGE” demonstrates remarkable focus in its experimental electronic execution. The production employs restraint that heightens anticipation—bass elements lurk beneath rather than dominate, electronic textures flicker rather than overwhelm, creating space for Camille’s “soulful soprano” to dictate emotional direction.

The song ultimately succeeds as “a hymn to love and the complexities of desire” precisely because it refuses to romanticize connection. Instead, Hansom Ēli presents love as a potent substance with potential for both transcendence and toxicity—appropriate for a track where even the color orange itself transforms from warm association to warning signal by song’s conclusion.