Sometimes you buy music on the thinnest of pretexts. I read a review saying Primary Colours by The Horrors (such a terrible band name it’s almost cool!) smacked of Can, that wonderful, oh-s0-non-commercial Krautrock hippy band of the late 60 and the 70s. But I didn’t realize that The Horrors are mainly regarded as gothic punk or garage.
Out of this confusion, Primary Colours is a vigorous, entertaining, varied release that is more Joy Division (or rather the Interpol incarnation) than any of the other labels bandied about. That deep Ian Curtis-style voice of Faris Rotter (another woeful name) is almost a put-off, just because of its cliched nature, but the band combines it with a driving rhythm section, wonderful guitar, and washes of keyboards within splendid arrangements. The guitar figure in the lurching ‘Do You Remember’ is as enjoyable as I’ve heard in ages. And the album comes with two killer seven-minute-plus tracks that alone are worth the total price. ‘I Only Think of You’ is built around a woozy, funereal distortion riff and climbs in intensity until a glorious electronic fadeout. ‘Sea Within a Sea,’ perhaps with a hint of Can in its busy drone rhythm, picks up Tangerine Dream-style leaping synthesizers in the middle and also fades out lusciously. Lovely, the pair of them.
Primary Colours isn’t for everyone. If the name Interpol means nothing to you, ignore. Otherwise this is a surprisingly rewarding slab of classic British rock.