(XL)
First impressions
count for a lot, and that's especially true in the music world. The
Horror's showed up in skinny black jeans looking like a band that
spent too much time listening to Bauhaus. Amongst a wave of hype from
outlets like NME, their debut album Strange House won them a
host of fans with it's scruffy and dark post punk sound but while it
impressed a lot of people it didn't seem like a sound that could
sustain them. Then the band took a left field turn releasing the
eight minute krautrock epic Sea Within a Sea, a track full of
synthesizer rhythms and mesmeric looping drums, from the follow up
record Primary Colours and
really proved they were not a band to be overlooked. For the
album they worked with Geoff Barrow and Chris Cunningham, delving
into shoegaze and Jesus & The Mary Chain style noise pop and
getting themselves a Mercury Music Prize nomination in the process.
2011's Skying
explored new wave and British psychedelia leaning more on the
electronics of keyboardist and synthesiser player Tom Cowan and saw
the band becoming an ever more approachable act. The Horror's latest
album Luminous continues to blend and refine these diverse
influences in what might be their most polished and cohesive effort
to date.
Chasing Shadows
thunders into view after a short ambient passage with the huge sound
that bands like The Verve and Ride would create. Anthemic and
positive, this is The Horror's taking their sound out into the
sunlight. The lyrics, often of relationships seem positive here,
vocalist Faris Badwan captures that feeling of early romance as your
mind plays out the future ahead of you. And its not just the lyrics
that are positive, I See You starts of as the most pop minded track
that the horrors have put together. Carried by layered synthesizer
arpeggios and a big chorus before switching up to a glorious,
hypnotically celebratory refrain of crashing drums and waves of
ascending guitars.
Track like So Know You
Know and In and Out of Sight are pretty much synth pop carried by the
flickering sounds of analog electronics, the latter especially having
a darker feel, as the bass and drums provide a danceable groove.
Guitarist Joshua Hayward creates some of the most creative sounds
I've heard in a while, following the Kevin Shields approach of
utilising effects to make the instrument sound as little like a
guitar as possible. On Jealous Sun he creates a sound like a string
section recreating whale song before a sound like it's ripping itself
apart amongst layers of distortion. Whilst Faris Badwan's voice can
sometimes get a little lost amongst the noise on Luminous, on
Change Your Mind, a song full of sixties pop atmosphere, the singer's
gentle, pining croon shines through over a 6/4 drum shuffle. 'Hey,
I'm still burning/Would you really walk away form me?' Badwan
sings, momentarily bursting that positive bubble that Luminous seems
to exist within.
Luminous
is full of likeable tracks, none of which really let the album down
and stands a s proof of a band that has shaken of it's early image
and continue to go from strength to strength. They are one of
those rare bands were you can see the indispensable contribution of
each member, all of which seem to get an equal chance to shine on
what is their most balanced album. It isn't as gritty as their debut
or as noisey as Primary Colours, but Luminous is the
strongest statement the band have made to date.
Originally posted on figure8magazine.co.uk
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