New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Whether it's Putin or Trump, Corbyn or Boris, Chi or Trudeau, Biden or Bolsanaro, Macron or Marine Le Pen, or even our very own Rishi Sunak, Keir Starmer, Nicola Sturgeon or Mary Lou McDonald, for the lot of them it's all just a game of power and we the people are the pawns in their eyes. It's not only politics competing for our allegiance: religions, social doctrines, influencers and cults, they're all out for one thing - power. After all, the old idiom remains true… absolute power corrupts absolutely.
It's an increasingly bleak political landscape out there and these people and entities all have one ambition - power. When we all manage to take a break from the political rat race, we turn to our phones where a finely tuned series of algorithms are waiting for us, providing a steady stream of unfiltered content - whether for good or for ill. The message behind The Horn's new driving rock-pop single 'Power Show' is to be wary of all cult-like ideologies, to keep a skeptical eye open, and to resist any type of tyrannical power structures.
Commenting on what inspired this new track, bassist Nick True states: "So many cults around us, not just religious & political, scroll any social media or watch, listen or read any media in any country and so many people think their cult or their beliefs whatever they are, are more important or more real than someone else's, they are not, just be nice that's all you need, piss off, it's exhausting!"
Despite the notably dark and sinister undertones to 'Power Show', particularly in lyrics like "The cult are coming after you / They're watching every (little) thing that you do", this track has a fresh, motivational feel thanks to the 60s-style live recording. It's got that organic, old-school sound with a catchy guitar riff and loads of rhythm changes to keep the listener on their toes. It certainly makes sense why The Horn often use this track to open their live sets, it's an empowering number that cuts against the grain. The aim with 'Power Show' is to perk up the audience's ears with the foreshadowing lyrics, while also getting their feet moving and blood pumping with the invigorating sound.
Tour dates:
7th
September 2022 Bath, UK Komedia
8th
September 2022 London, UK O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire
13th
September 2022 Nottingham, UK Rescue Rooms
14th
September 2022 Manchester, UK O2 Ritz
- Tour with Star Sailor starting 7th
September 2022.
The Horn are Jonny Taylor (voice, guitar),
Danny Monk (guitars, programming), Nick True (bass), Ed Cox (keyboards) and Alex Moorse (drums) but it hasn't always been like this: several moments ago, songwriter and erstwhile
Friends Of Gavin bassist Nick True - to the uninitiated, F.O.G. were an acclaimed, north London five-piece who toured the UK with REM at the end of the last century, and ended up never releasing an album - recruited multi-instrumentalist
Danny Monk to see what magic might occur. Monk, a Sound Technology graduate from Liverpool
Institute for Performing Arts (founded by Paul McCartney) had a studio in Baker Street and much production/recording experience throughout the USA (including the Village studio in West Hollywood), and It's his eclectic chutzpah that gives the Horn its mid-Atlantic appeal. Correspondingly, once you hear Danny's superb guitar work on Passion, you'll understand why he cites late '70s New York No Wave art-rockers Television as a major influence and why "Room on Fire, Is This It? and anything by the Ramones" are not far behind.
Born in Massachusetts, but relocating to Cornwall at the age of two - his thespian upbringing ensured that by the time he was nine, he was treading the boards at the Minack Theatre - Jonny Taylor turns out to be the ace in the pack. Having said that, he easily mightn't have been: in 2011, after travelling through Thailand and Cambodia, Jonny ended up breaking his leg in a horrific motorcycle accident in Laos, before multiple surgeries ensured he would walk again two years later. Once back in the UK, and several years after this, Jonny,
Danny and Kingston-born drummer Alex Moorse formed a band called Montrell -
Elton John played their music on his Rocket Hour
Radio Show last year - before fate intervened in the form of Nick True and (Edinburgh-born, Newcastle University graduate) keyboardist Ed Cox, who joined forces to make up the finer reaches of The Horn.
At this point in proceedings, you'd be forgiven for thinking, if the Horn didn't exist, it would be necessary to invent them, and you'd be right. Indeed, one listen to their songs will convince you, you've had them knocking around the house for years. But whilst New Order,
Talk Talk and the Lotus Eaters all get an outing as influences, you also get fabulous song titles and subject matters: the Department Of Fate is so-monikered after a phrase in
Goldfinger lyricist Lesley Bricusse's 2006 autobiography - "The Department of Fate has taken good care of me" - and conjures up an image of a world where our comings and goings are controlled by a benevolent bunch of faceless civil servants; the Ashes to Ashes-tinged No.8 Dreams features a lachrymose dreamer still dreaming whist fighting at 'shit parties'; and Do It Now is a Seize The Day call to arms for anyone disaffected and tardy enough to demand such things. The latter is surely the Horn's signature song and a distinct reminder that it's possible to throw the Strokes, Lightning Seeds and Psychedelic Furs into the mix and still get more than the sum of the constituent parts. But, hey, that's where we came in.
