The Horrors
Primary Colours
XL
By Jose Fritz
The Horrors were first discovered in the fall of 2006. Their self-titled LP was found clutched in the arms of a preserved body in a Sphagnum bog just outside Canvey Island on the Thames. The story was reported widely in the UK but internationally ignored in the wake of the more photogenic Clonycavan Bog Man found in September of 2007. That LP was carefully separated from the deceased to be examined separately. It was quickly carbon-dated into the mid 1970s plus or minus 30 years approximately. Prior to this the band was unknown to science.
The presence of the LP led the Uniformed Division to question recording artists of the era: sadly few knew anything about the murder. Andy Metcalfe of the Soft Boys was detained, questioned and released as was Jaz Coleman of Killing Joke and Peter Murphy of Bauhaus. Murphy was held on unrelated charges but later said that he quite liked the album but that he didn’t remember any bands by that name from that time period. Nick Cave came forward and said that all members of the Birthday party were accounted for but had no further comment. The police were stymied. Due to a lack of circumstantial evidence even amateur publicists were able to fend off repeated queries.
The detective’s continual demonstration plays of the EP began to build a strange buzz around this mystery band. Research unearthed a copy of Andy Warhol holding the LP while in line at the Cromwell pub in Wellingborough. A close examination of the image deemed it to be a forgery but this is still widely disputed. It was an employee in the technical support bureau that first recommended the marginally literate police that they read the liner notes. This led to the revelation that while the bog body made be decades or even centuries old, the LP was certainly no more that a year old at that point.
The Horrors were deeply amused with all connections media made between them and the preserved corpse. Vocalist Faris Badwan made it a point to deny nothing and imply everything. Their follow up, Strange House, was not nearly as controversial. Its gothic trappings were fully worthy of being discovered in the arms of a corpse, but alas they opted for traditional retail distribution. At first, XL was put off by the tales of the bog man but he had a certain endearing flair. They signed the band, and in 2007 Geoff Barrow of Portishead came on to produce their debut for the label.
Primary Colours is their sophomore release if we’re only counting in whole numbers. There was that other EP, Shadazz, in 2008. But upon listening one can see the confusion. In so many ways The Horrors are a throwback to the short-lived British Goth movement of the 1970s. It had all the sharp clothes of the later American movement, but far more psychedelia and cajones. The layers of guitar and synth on song like “Three Decades” evoke a sci-fi noir that can’t be fully appreciated without imagining an NYU film project music video replete with flying saucers and scantily clad she-zombies. Other more guttural numbers like “I Can’t Control Myself” embrace a filthy buzz guitar tone evoking the best of old punk like the Anti-Nowhere League or even (gasp) the Stooges. Primary Colours is a record of permanence; one I’ll still be listening to not only next week, but next month and next year. The songs run together like beads of mercury on a plate quivering in rhythm and concord for us all.
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