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Our album of the week (6th January 2012)
...according to our Mike on Thu 05 Jan, 2012.
Holidays Records are one of the labels who are totally coming up with the goods right now, and it's always an exciting (and costly) day for me when we some we get something new in from them. The packaging is always so bold and mysterious but most importantly the music it contains more often than not turns out to be worthy of such care and attention. This one here has a vivid red card inner sleeve which looks well classy. Anyway, enough about the cover, Horrid Red are an offshoot of underrated post-punk/kraut weirdos Teenage Panzerkorps and so they've got my full attention from the outset here! On this album they rein things in from the psychedelic kraut madness of TPk and opt for a more '80s post-punk/synthpop approach. The percussive German-language vocals are still present in the fore but the tunes are more synth-led and less shambling, but with the same attention to tonal detail that sets apart their other band. You can clearly hear Wire and The Cure influences running right through this, sometimes maybe even the Pet Shop Boys, but there's a clever modern muckiness about these familiar sounds and this record is just dripping with personality and variety and tunes whipped out so casually you're not sure if the band even realise how good they are. Fans of post-punk in the vein of Joy Division or Ice Age take note, these guys are up to something special.
Celestial Joy has been recorded by Edmund Xavier at Video West in San Francisco in occasion of Horrid Red first West Coast tour and first ever live appearances. As from the title, Celestial Joy is a step away from the depressive synth punk of their first releases. Instead, there is some sort of light cleaved through this album, though only a weak light can filter to the depth of the dark environment we are moving in. The recording session saw the newly established core trio of Edmund Xavier, Bunker Wolf and Clay Ruby (Burial Hex) in charge, with further assistance by Nathaniel Ritter, Tim Berresheim, Carly Flies, Catholic Pat and Christine Boepple.
Horrid Red was born as an offshot project by Edmund Xavier and Bunker Wolf of Teenage Panzerkorps exploring the arcane aspects of post-punk and new wave. After their debut 12" - which we released in 2010 - two killer 7-inch singles followed on Soft Abuse, featuring their bandmate Catholic Pat on drums and Clay Ruby tickling the fingerboard.
Pressing info:
400 copies
1. Wheel Of The Dead
2. Forever Is Too Long
3. Wash Away the Dust
4. Marble Staircase III
5. Nothing in My Heart
6. Afternoon Wreaths
7. Men and Sand
8. Tragic Image
9. Celestial Joy
10. Meager Vines
11. Colored Lights
12. Horrid Life
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Norman Records,
Unit 20, Croydon House,
Croydon Street,
Leeds,
LS11 9RT, UK.
Tel/fax: (+44) 0113 245 4399
Email: phil@normanrecords.com
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