When The Horrors first emerged onto the scene back in 2006, they did so with a cultivated cool that teetered on the edge of in-authenticity. From the campy creepshow fake names to the made-to-order mystery that surrounded their shock-rock stage antics, it was no surprise that there seemed to be more posture than punch behind the self-anointed ‘psychotic sounds’ of their earliest incantations.
It turned out that the surprise would come soon enough. After earning endorsements from the likes of Portishead’s Geoff Barrow and revered videographer Chris Cunningham, the five-piece from Southend would then complete a musical one-eighty, following up the half-cooked garage freak-out of their 2007 debut ‘Strange House‘ with the sharp post-punk minimalism that was 2009’s ‘Primary Colours‘. Whether their rise was a result of style, substance, or serendipity all of the sudden didn’t really matter. The Horrors were here and they weren’t going anywhere just yet.
Two years later and they are indeed still here, running through the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles last Thursday night in support of this year’s ‘Skying‘; an equally impressive album steeped in shimmering shoegaze psychedelia and dripping with 80’s new wave nostalgia.
That nostalgia may be a bit borrowed, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s tired. The Horrors’ influences are abundant and obvious – the bass-wobble of PiL, the synth-soaked bliss of ‘Brotherhood‘-era New Order, the melancholy goth of early Bauhaus, to name a few – but so is their attention to detail, and more importantly so is their dedication to songcraft.
By mixing this dedication with the right amount of icy detachment, they manage to recreate the elusive power of an old fuzzy memory the way few bands have in the past two decades. Set opener ‘Changing The Rain‘ was a perfect example. With its stretching keys and Faris Badwan’s subdued vocals, the song had the cinematic sheen of a Simple Minds outtake in the way it conjured up the reminiscence of a moment you may have never even been a part of.
The next two tracks instantly picked up the pace, as ‘Who Can Say‘ was an up-tempo charger with a rolling distorted bassline and ‘I Can See Through You‘ sounded like The Psychedelic Furs covering a sped-up Spiritualized. They then followed with the Joy Division-meets-Primal Scream of ‘Scarlet Fields’, before breaking into the introspective echo of ‘Dive In‘.
The last half of the set was even stronger. The stripped-down hypnotic pulse at the center of ‘Sea Within A Sea‘ proved that it is still their most captivating song to date, while the calming twinkle surrounding ‘Still Life‘ showed off the height of their pop-smart accessibility. The group returned for an encore of ‘Mirror’s Image‘ and ‘Moving Further Away‘, the last of which extended out into a surreal swirl of interlocking synth and guitar effects that really underscored how far their scope of sound has evolved since their screeching ‘Sheena Is A Parasite‘ beginnings.
Where that sound expands to next is anybody’s guess, but there’s one place that it almost surely isn’t going to go, and that’s backwards. The Horrors could easily be accused of scavenging off the styles of the past, but they so far don’t seem content on letting that past dictate where they go with their own future.
(Beau De Lang)
