Review: Primary Colours - The Horrors

When The Horrors first tore their way into the public consciousness in 2006 via a provocative choice of cover artists by the NME, their vaudeville shtick was largely dismissed as art-school posturing. Drawing heavily on the filth and the fury of 60s Garage rock, early singles ‘Sheena Is A Parasite’ and ‘Death At The Chapel’ were more akin to the trashy romps of a Freddy Kruger movie than the psychological subversion of Stanley Kubrick one suspects the five piece were aiming for. After suffering the ignominy of being dropped by their record label Loog, when their masterfully hyped debut barely rippled the UK album charts at no.37, the odds were looking heavily stacked towards a rapid return to obscurity. Primary Colours arrives then without the burden of expectations but to merely state that it surpasses the meagre standards of its predecessor entirely does the LP no justice whatsoever.

Somehow whilst lurking in the shadows of derision, The Horrors have sculpted a record that goes some way towards fulfilling the Machiavellian level of ambition they previously have only hinted at. Out are any musical signposts towards The Sonics or Stranglers, in comes an overpowering brooding malevolence gleaned from a diet of My Bloody Valentine, Ride and Jesus And The Mary Chain. The resulting transformation may not exactly amount to the creation of a ‘new-gaze’ movement but it certainly represents a skilful example of early 90s revivalism. Instead of continuing with the diminishing returns of a more visceral ‘shock and awe’ approach, the subtle subversion inherent within Primary Colours’ continuous wall of sound offers a far more unsettling sense of unpredictability.

‘Mirror’s Image’ draws the listener in from the albums outset by slowing sculpting a blanket of melodious synth into a murderous howl of pulsating bass and barely audible guitar lines. Such a level of tactful ferocity continues throughout the first half of the LP, culminating in the histrionic misery of ‘New Ice Age’ which sees Faris Badwan shriek out his melodramatic musings on “THE AGONY” of love lost. Such a role suits Badwan, as within the bands new all encompassing blanket of feedback, his pithy vocals gain an added air of insecurity. Inevitably though, the momentum can’t be maintained and with the onset of ‘I Can Only Think Of You’ The Horrors begin to lapse their new found tautness in favour of sub-MBV wig out territory.

If it weren’t for album closer ‘Sea Within A Sea’, it’s a phase that comes close to undoing the albums earlier achievements. Yet in fine macabre tradition of keeping the best twist for last, their prior focus is put to test over eight minutes, in which one assumes Portishead producer Geoff Barrow has employed every bit of studio magic in the book to slay the bands grisly formula to perfection. Starting on a pounding electronic rhythm, the song writhes around in anguish until finally peak with a coldly euphoric Kraftwerk influenced outro. It’s a fitting end to an album which endears through its bold choice to throw caution to the wind and sink or swim upon an uncompromised vision. The Horrors are back and better than ever. Long may their new found reign of terror continue.

7/10

Primary Colours is released across UK record stores on 4^th May

All My Friends

So in retrospect, maybe I was a little bit selfish yesterday. Not only did I make a mix catering exclusively to my taste in music but I forgot to thank all the people who’ve made this experience worthwhile... my disciples/readers. So as a way of thanking you all for checking out whatever gobbledygook has spawned from my keyboard on a daily basis, for one night only I’ve commissioned a special ‘readers choice’ blog in which those brave enough to put their heads above the parapet have selected an album that they think you should all hear. Just as with the Special Olympics there are no winners, just participants. Each album gets a brief summary stating why its selector deems it worthy of your attention and to give thing a competitive edge I’ll engage in some genteel chop of my own by giving my own thrupence worth on each LP.

So in no particular order let’s start with:

· Maureeny Wishfull – Maureeny Wishfull (Recommended by Steph Rosevear)

For those of you familiar with Warwick Student Radio’s head honcho of music you’ll know she has a bit of a scattershot taste in music covering everything from Alice Cooper to Kid Cudi. Here Steph has garnered full marks on her indie pretentiousness credentials by recommending me a band that don’t have a website, MySpace or Wikipedia page (cheers for that one). Essentially all I can tell you is that Maureeny Wishfull were Jimmy Page’s pre-Zeppelin folk band and they were pretty damn good. Great shout Steph!

Listen to Maureeny Wishfull here

· Brand New – Deja Entendu (Recommended by Andrew Cole)

Andrew has no shame in admitting his favourite band of all time are Blink 182 and consequently he has a pretty exhaustive knowledge of American pop/punk/rock bands. Brand New have been labelled by NME as ‘the emo Radiohead’ and although there’s a fair bit of hyperbole behind that statement, it does capture the experimental and lyrical deftness of touch that places Brand New a par above many of their contemporary skater bois. Deja Entendu is the bands second album and from my first listen onwards it rocked my socks.

Listen to Brand New here

· The Knife – Silent Shout (Recommended by Daniel Thompson)

Dan knows what he likes when it comes to music: 80s and electro. Should those two genres collide then... For his selection though, Dan has played it safe and gone with some uber-cool Swedish electro courtesy of The Knife. This album was ranked Pitchfork’s Best Album of 2006, so clearly it’s got some critical clout behind it but I wouldn’t call it the most accessible LP I’ve ever listened to. One to keep plugging away at for sure.

Listen to The Knife here

· Christina Aguilera – Stripped (Recommended by Sara Sesardić)

Sara describes the Christina Aguilera featured on Stripped as “the ultimate idol figure for any 14 year old girl at the time - including me!” For this reason it’s probably best I never caught on to the Christina fad seven years ago, my parents would have been mightily concerned. Still though time has passed and we’re all a bit older and (hopefully) wiser. As for Stripped, it remains a pop album through and through. At a mammoth twenty tracks long it does overstay its welcome somewhat but in terms of guilty pleasures this record goes to the top of the pile.

Listen to Christian Aguilera here

· Broadcast 2000 – Building Blocks EP (Recommended by Alex Wilks)

Last but by no means least, I’m going to stick my neck on the line here and say Broadcast 2000 were my favourite band out of all the excellent choices. They’re just lovely in a scones and tea round Grandma’s kind of way – delightful and chilled out at the same time. Unfortunately they don’t have an LP out yet but you can find their mini-album ‘Building Blocks’ on Spotify now.

Listen to Broadcast 2000 here

So thanks again to everyone who sent in a recommendation, last blog tomorrow aaaaargh!!!

Bring The Noize

Right, so your last mix is here to download and it’s time to remember the most important thing about this blog. The music? Don’t be silly. It’s me of course. During the construction of various mixes I’ve found myself making adjustments for the sake of my adoring public. Now that I’ll soon be embarking on a self enforced blogging hiatus into the wilderness of ‘proper work’, I feel I can finally rough you all up a bit with some good old fashioned feedback. As I’ve hopefully demonstrated, I appreciate a sugar sweet harmony as much as the next man but when it all boils down, louder is generally better and this week’s selection is pretty bloody loud. Featuring are the likes My Bloody Valentine, Nirvana and Sonic Youth, while listening earplugs are optional, all volume dials however must be turned up to eleven.

You can download the mix here.

You will need Winrar or WinZip to open the folder. You can download Winrar for free here (select Winrar 3.80).

Enjoy

Disclaimer:

Commercially available MP3s are for word-of-mouth purposes only. If you like any of the music featured here, please purchase it to support the artist and enjoy higher quality audio. If you are an artist or represent an artist and would like a file removed, please contact me.

New Band: The Soft Pack

The Soft Pack practically reek of cool, maybe it’s genetics, maybe it’s in their California souls or maybe it’s a particular brand of cologne. Either way, their low-fi slacker indie rock is exactly the kind of music to play after when pulling a classic Fonz pose. Originally band formed under the provocative moniker of The Muslims, but changed the name due to "ignorant and racist" comments. Now after their subtle rebranding they’ve begun to garner praise from the likes of The Breeders, The Last Shadow Puppets, Bloc Party and Franz Ferdinand, who they provided support for during their March 2009 UK dates. Their sound is best summed up in ‘Extinction’, a brilliantly lethargic combination of three chord guitar riffs and (can’t be arsed to) try hard lyrics, “I don’t owe anything to you”. Similarly ‘Right Or Wrong’ is reminiscent of the Southern-fried Strokesishness of early Kings Of Leon material. After an afternoon sent playing football and frisbee, The Soft Pack have carried the sunshine into my bedroom whilst it clouds over outside.

The Soft Pack can be found on MySpace here

Their Extinction EP will be released in the UK on 1928 Recodings on May 11. A brief UK tour has been arranged to support the release, view dates here