Cornwall-based UK band Low Harness release their debut album, “Salvo”, on December 6th via via Krautpop! and here’s an early taste that owes a little to Broadcast. Say the band: “Bloodplay is about the lengths people go to for pleasure, to escape from the banality of everyday existence and act out their most subversive urges. Even if we do not give in to these fantasies, or are too afraid to realise them: a place exists in our imagination where we cannot be judged playing them out.”
Channelling atonality and noise alongside expansive shoegaze and hypnotic krautrock, “Salvo” captures a sense of instability and unknown terrors; political unrest, impending and current wars, economic crisis, environmental collapse and the loss of loved ones.
“The video was shot in an abandoned leisure centre which served as a perfect fantasy backdrop for this song where the subject was able to daydream in complete isolation.
It stars “Pink Baby” local drag artist and passionate advocate for Falmouth’s queer community, Through her love of dance and adoration of the colour pink, Pink Baby explores themes of gender oppression, disability rights, and queer joy in her performances.”
A union of four seasoned DIY minds, Low Harness was born in 2023 when they met through working at Penryn DIY hub the Fish Factory Arts Space. With Hannah and Martin Pease favouring alternative tunings, it was only a matter of time before they were writing together. Joined by Ed Shellard on drums and Alex Harmer on bass, the record emerged quickly after practising in a friend’s garage, with sonic touchpoints including 90s noise rock, Sonic Youth, Wire, MBV, Glenn Branca, and Einstürzende Neubauten. To finish writing “Salvo“, they took part in a week’s residency at local venue The Cornish Bank, before heading to an old 19th century chapel to record.
This organic urgency with which the record was written lends a propulsive dynamism to the tracks. It’s also balanced with an expansiveness, a sonic landscape that sees the angular and motorik style of Hannah and Ed’s previous projects combine with Martin and Alex’s noise and shoegaze stylings. Across the album, this manifests in a rich sound palette. There’s the brooding post-punk of apocalyptic manual ‘Exit Plan’, complete with Siouxsie Sioux vocals, and the pensive pedalboard-psych of ‘Forever In My Head’, a daydreaming song about inertia. ‘Bloodplay’ sees the band musing on the extreme lengths people can go to for pleasure, with Broadcast-inspired vocals soaring over eerie pop melodies, and album closer ‘Admissions’ combines twanging, disco-punk with capacious noise, instrumental intervals featuring prominently throughout.
On the simultaneously tender and furious ‘Lungs’ – a track about grief and the loss of a sibling, Hannah meditatively drawls “if everything’s taken away/ what is love for?”. It’s a powerful and raw line that captures something of the vital essence that the band has poured into this debut; “Salvo” is a strikingly confident introduction to a band who refuse to look the other way.
The band will head out on a UK this December and today share third single from the new album, “Bloodplay”, featuring Broadcast-inspired vocals soaring over eerie pop melodies.
The Fat Angel Sings 