Following the acclaimed release of its industrial title track, The Horrors have released their brand new 3 track ‘Lout’ EP, out now via Wolf Tone/Virgin Music Label & Artist Services. The EP tracks ‘Lout’ and ‘Org’ are also out now on blood red 7” vinyl, strictly limited to 1500 copies worldwide – the last few copies are available HERE.
According to lead singer Faris Badwan, “Lout is about the relationship between choice and chance, compulsive risk-taking and pushing your luck. As a band, particularly live, we’ve always had an aggressive side and as we began writing new songs it became clear that we were heading in that direction.”The industrial-edged EP is the first new music from the band since 2017’s critically acclaimed fifth album ‘V’, and is a notable sonic departure from the band’s recent work; “There’s something about it which feels like a return to a heavier sound but really it’s a million miles away from anything we’ve done.” says keyboardist Tom Furse; “Keeping the sound aggressive and the beats heavy was a central tenet, everything seemed to fall around that.”
In the words of bassist Rhys Webb “It’s the nastiest music we’ve made since Strange House. An intense barrage of industrial noise. A return to the spirit and attitude of our debut LP but blasted into the future.”
This bold new sound is partnered with a striking visual aesthetic carried across the artwork, visuals and merch collection born from exciting collaborations between the band and a new creative team led by Bunny Kinney, including a short film directed by Jordan Hemingway starring beauty executive Isamaya Ffrench and scored by guitarist Joshua Third and keyboardist Tom Furse, as well as press shots by Loverboy designer Charles Jeffrey.
Having enlisted the talents of indie and pop superproducer Paul Epworth on ‘V’, the Lout EP sees The Horrors return to their past methods of self-production, albeit under unusual circumstances due to the pandemic, as Tom explains; “Joe and I having both moved out of London to our respective coastlines meant that the process inherently became more about remote working, which was kinda always my tip anyway. The start of Org was me messing around with some samples at my home studio, the sounds were so aggressive, I knew the guys would like them. So a lot of that development of the music is us whirring away independently and then coming together when we think we’ve maxed out what we can do alone.”
“In the past whenever we’ve written stuff with a harder edge it’s come from the energy we get from all playing together in a room but creating this kind of atmosphere remotely was a different challenge.” says Faris; “It’s the same level of intensity as the 100-miles-an-hour stuff we’ve done in the past but the anger is somehow more channelled. I can’t wait to play these songs live as there’s so much freedom in that kind of chaos.”
