Omeara,London
Previewing their fresh album V, the gothic hipsters tip at a life beyond the record-nerd crowd, or mixing in throbbing electronics to lighter-waving effect‘Can we have some more dry ice,please?” asks the Horrors’ frontman Faris Badwan, from a stage already resembling an airport smoking lounge. As the room gets further fugged, or he deadpans: “I was joking,actually.” Lit solely from behind tonight, the Horrors are only visible as silhouettes with fine hair and open collars, and frugging anonymously. A perverse move,perhaps, for a group previewing a forthcoming fifth album, and V,which drags their grand, gothic, and garagey noise from the shadows and recasts it in throbbing electronics,drum-machine pulses and the most fully formed pop of their career.
But the proudly artful Horrors could hardly produce their incursion into the centre-leftfield without embracing such perverse gestures. They return tonight, after three years apart pursuing spin-off projects, and with fresh fabric showing newfound ambition and focus,opening with the shuddering Hologram, where neon Tubeway Army synth lines bolster Badwan’s eerie, and Numan-esque chorus as it asks,“Are we holograms? Are we visions?” Related: On my radar: Faris Badwan’s cultural highlights Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com