Harry Howard - Slight Pavilions LP

Harry Howard - Slight Pavilions LP (Cranes Records/France)

Genre: Apocalyptic pop, Australian rock and roll royalty as the brother of Roland S Howard in both blood and brood, gothic romanticism, '80s horror soundtracks, lockdown LPs, self destructive drum machines with a nod to Suicide.

Mood: Gritty drama in a velvet walled opium den, drawing the curtains so the light is blocked, Dismal space cowboys Twin Peaks motorcycle gangs lit by neon, and writing with a poisoned pen.

They Say:

The name Harry Howard might sound familiar to the melancholy-noisy connoisseurs of the past four decades. In the Howard family, the last-born, Harry, does way more than just curating the now-noise temple that are Pop Crimes' Nights dedicated to his late brother Rowland -- gathering people like Lydia Lunch, Bobby Gillespie, Mick Harvey, Jonnine and Conrad Standish, JP Shilo, or even Nick Cave himself. Alongside his experience alongside Crime and The City Solution or These Immortal Souls, the Australian summons the feverish melodies of The Gun Club, Nikki Sudden, or Gallon Drunk and then crushes them into a Suicide-like stern production where the drum machine is Queen. Slight Pavilions' nine tunes are battered by no-wave and post-punk's hammers just to be plunged into a cold southern-gothic romanticism that is the finest of Australia's productions. Far from being into the easy referencing, it is here a precious precipitate of the noisiest side of contemporary music that is offered to us. By the way, Harry's perpetrating the odious crime of being pop and danceable in spite of it all. The new record by Rowland S. Howard's brother. Nine tracks of no-wave, post-punk, and southern-gothic romantism.