the horrors - classic or dud

lol "The Rip (Off)"

The bit at the end is actually really good. I might pick up the album when it's out. I never thought I'd say that about THE HORRORS! FFS.

The look of the band in the video is TOTALLY lifted from Loop, circa "Heavens End". I mean that could actually BE Loop, circa "Heaven's End", if you turn the music down a bit.

I am actually a bit sick of "isn't shy of hiding its influences", it gets in the way of the music, has done for a while.

Have you heard Loop "Fade Out", Louis? I sort of suspect you might like it a bit. They actually COVERED "Mother Sky" instead of knocking it off.

Loop "Heavens!" "End" ;)

I am actually a bit sick of "isn't shy of hiding its influences", it gets in the way of the music, has done for a while.

I'm completely with you on this, but for a band I thought were irredeemable, this is some startling proficiency and crucially they meld the influences in a fairly original (well, striking) way.

Not really heard Loop. Must rectify.

Here you go:

"Fade Out" is such a fucking good album, so relentless & mechanical in its feel. It's 20 years old.

Somewhere between surprised and amazed to find that the Horros were capable of this.

Actually, I don't believe they are capable of this, and maybe Barrow will do to them what Andy Weatherall did for Primal Scream.

i doubt they pull much of it off live anyhow

In the latest issue of Platform mag there's a picture of Faris's bedroom. Right at the front of his pile of records is Loop's A Gilded Eternity album. He also owns a golliwog.

The one time I saw the Horrors they were so boring and uncharismatic that I left during the second song. I'll be amazed if they can play that new track live.

Not really feeling that track. Too much crappy London scene post-punk and his vocals are unbearable.

"too much crappy london scene post-punk and the vocals are unbearable" prob will be what's carved on the gravestone of britisher rock music.

I like this. I suppose it's in part because it surprised me too that a band I thought would just be some dull garage rock band forever are at least showing some ambition. It wasn't so much the first bit sounding like Can or Neu that got me, but more that the later bit sounds like Klaus Schulze. Different enough for me not to be bothered.

The second half (well, and the groovy FX-pedalled transition) is predominantly what wins my accolades and listenership, although the first sets it up well.

Yeah me too, but it needs the build up to be effective.

Yeah, that's what I said! :D Although now I'm finding myself, bass guitar slung, skipping to the four-minute mark and playing along.

Maybe the album will just be them reinterpreting the whole of the last Portishead album in a Krautrock style.

Actually that would be kind of brilliant.

This is still so epic...someone's suggested The Chameleons (and to be more precise "Second Skin") as a reference point...he isn't too far wide of the mark, I guess.

take that back please

It's not my observation! I'm just reporting it, throwing it out there. Something about the backing synth right at the end, I suppose, and the fact it changes tack halfway thru

So, OK, this is way more interesting than I imagined The Horrors were capable of being, but even so, why the fucking god awful goth singing? Can no one groove AND have fun instead of being a doomy cunt?

Oh. SFA can. Class dismissed.

Interestingly, it's this vs. "Cardiff In The Sun" for my song of the year thus far, and they're both 8-minute Kraut-outs, the one all doomy, synthy and redemptive, the other all light, airy and utterly blissful

As for the vocals, you may have a point re: being perhaps a bit TOO wrapped up in their own dourness, but I think the vocal style works WITH the musical narrative, especially those buried out-of-tune vocals in the second half...they go from dour to completely lost, completely overwhelmed by sound...I think it works really nicely there.

Damo Suzuki didn't sound like a doomy cunt.

yeah but you gotta admit the vocal slight return amidst the synth storm is really well-executed

The 80s electro keyboard in Sea Within A Sea is totally ace but I'm not mega thrilled by the rest of the album on initial listen

I like it, especially the second part. Though I liked the first album too, it was good fun.

Oh, so you mean they've hit us with the trump card early on and they're kinda hoping the rest surfs on its wake?

Damn sweet trump card mind.

'Who Can Say' is great, complete with po-faced spoken section!

Definitely hearing The Rip in Sea Within A Sea. And plenty of Psychedelic Furs and Chameleons in the rest of the albu,/

i like 'primary colours', nothing groundbreakingly original but ive been enjoying listening to it

http://www.nme.com/layout/magImage.php

I am listening to this album again now. I really want to like it more than I do! It does sound quite a lot like Loop, albeit if they'd never listened to any heavy rock records

This album is sounding pretty great actually, but the 'ZOMG they have ripped up the rulebook and thrown it out of the window!' hype is going to be insufferable. As a patchwork of very obvious influences though it's enjoyable enough.

Despite being slavishly derivative, I did quite like their first EP. Full first album wasn't bad, but can't remember the last time I played it.

Citation from the DiS review: "The Horrors have done the one thing no other hyped to the heavens British guitar band has been able to do in the past ten years; they’ve given birth to a sophomore album that drastically improves upon its predecessor"

Discuss. But perhaps they're right.

Interesting. Hard to think of exceptions right now. I was underwhelmed by their first album. First listen of the new one was entertaining, if just for the spot-the-unexpected-influence game. Sounds like Geoff Barrow had some fun injecting some inspiration. Still seems a bit awkward and silly to me, which means it's probably going to be a huge mega-seller. It's fun, maybe I'll enjoy repeated listens, we'll see.

Slavering review: http://www.clashmusic.com/reviews/the-horrors-primary-colours

Some talk about the new album here:

New album by the Horrors out today....

General consensus: pretty interesting.

I missed that revive from a month ago. Liked that video a lot better than what I had heard from the previous album. A pretty faceless take on Can like others were sayin, but surprisingly enjoyable. But I guess if I wanted Can w/o Damo Suzuki there are actual Can albums w/o Damo Suzuki...

I can't really get behind the implication that it's inherently more musically... distinguished to do an album that's a bite of Can and Loop or whatever than one that's a bite of The Cramps and The Birthday Party or whatever. Like all of those are more or less canonically esteemed bands in equal measure, y'know?

Exactly.

I agree, but it's no fun to listen to repeated remakes of Cramps records (or for that matter Can, or whoever). Even if they've taken off some equally derivative sources as from their first record, they've done so in a pretty interesting way I think.

Or to put it another way the fact that they are biting krautrock and drone rather than just garage rock shows that they want to develop.

This album is gash. It only got to 25 so hopefully they'll get dropped again.

i liked the single that sampled 'mother sky'. it was good.

I'd be really, really curious to hear the reactions to this album had it come from some no-names with no previous history.

I haven't felt the urge to go back to this album. I have enough records that sound a bit like this, I really don't need another one, especially with shitey goth vocals all over it.

I can't really get behind the implication that it's inherently more musically... distinguished to do an album that's a bite of Can and Loop or whatever than one that's a bite of The Cramps and The Birthday Party or whatever. Like all of those are more or less canonically esteemed bands in equal measure, y'know?

― display mane (DJ Mencap), Wednesday, May 13, 2009 1:33 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

That's pretty OTM. So they've done a better job aping Can than they did the Cramps. Big deal.

hang on, the only place where they ape Can on this record is on the first third of one song

i mean, MBV and Spiritualized have much more of a case in the legal department imo

I have only heard this one song lol.

it doesn't sound much like can except for the beat tbh

LIKE KANYE

It's a really good song, is what people are ignoring :P

(And the fact is, the best things about it have nothing to do with Can, and a helluva lot to do with uh er Portishead lolz)

http://thehorrors.co.uk/images/TheHorrorsSkying.jpg

that video is cringeworthy and embarassing. gothgaze? i dont know what the fuck any more.

Sea Within A Sea is still just such a great bit of music, right?

Any love for the side project Cat's Eyes with Faris and Rachel Zeffira? New album "Treaure House" is evocative of Broadcast with a kraut twist ("Names on the Mountains") and Shangri-Las ("Drag") with other 60s influences and elements from Rachel's classical background. Highly recommended.

Well credit to them, they never seem to stay in the same place. Their new song is a full on exultant 80s synth-pop anthem.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e38KoYlHDTA

I like this band

in ghost colours

surprised by how nice that is

Never really listened to them before but enjoying the new album. Definite Cut Copy vibes

Last track is awesome.

cat's eyes are wickedly underrated...probably should check out the horrors i guess

Enjoyably bland

Out.

The album's quite good and ending it on "Something To Remember Me By" is a smart touch. They are protean in a good way -- I remember seeing ads for their first album ten years back and while they haven't become avant-garde experimentalists or anything, they have a knack for setting their mind to try certain things that work more often than not, and they're definitely not the band they were. At their best they suggest a slight -- I emphasize slight -- equivalent to early to mid 80s Cure/Siouxsie in a key sense: trying different things within their pop form just to see if they can make it work. Very much looking forward to whenever the next tour might be -- they're only playing NYC for now.

I hadnt checked them out since "Primary Colours", which I really liked a the time. The new stuff sounds nice, refers to a lot of my personal hall-of-famers and yet it all sounds so slight. A weird feeling that despite the fact that I *should* like this, it just seems very pointless

classic hair