Staff Reviews

Pulled Apart By Horses - Pulled Apart By Horses

Review by Si Truss

The content of Pulled Apart by Horses’ debut may come as no surprise, but that's exactly what you want from this band.»

Buy now from:

rough trade exclusive with bonus 4 track live cd. in the words of their new single, pulled apart by horses are going 'back to the fuck yeah'. after two years tearing up the uk touring circuit as quickly as tearing up their own bodies, leeds' favourite trash-punks, are set to make good on their early promise as one of the country's most exciting new rock bands. this is their story. nobody likes to be called a supergroup, but they are certainly super, and it is true that they were reassembled from the severed remains of four bands that had gained currency around the leeds underground. james brown had played guitar in it takes bridges, tom hudson sang with mother vulpine, rob lee played bass in monster killed by laser and lee vincent drummed in concentration champ. james had been running an indie label so already had the connections, and after the particularly messy demise of his band, was moved to put them to work since he was "desperate to keep on playing and i'd wanted to have a bit more fun in the band, do something different from what everyone else was doing in leeds at the time." he snared rob and lee with the promise of forming 'a jesus lizard rip-off band.' and so it was that one night pulled apart by horses came together in the red light district of leeds, 'the least glamorous red light district in the uk' as he puts it. "we got together in a dank warehouse and wrote one song. straight away it had a life of its own," while the band's original brief was to emulate the legendary texan punks, the influence of four wild and often deranged musical minds meant it soon turned into something very much of its own. tom names nirvana, refused and at the drive-in as seminal influences, rob points to king crimson and wants to place proggy time-changes in a fun punk package, while lee points to bands like shellac and flash tunnel as 'bands that are heavy without being metal.' the result was a volatile sound all of its own; furious and chaotic, while remaining interesting over clever. "it turned into something else," says james, "but we still wanted to keep it as something fun. people seemed interested in it and liked it, and it kind of developed. indeed, pulled apart by horses' inaugural live show came about with the same sense of drama that would go on to follow them around. as james remembers: "when we get four songs together, we hadn't played a gig, so i went on a forum in leeds and said the members of these four bands have formed a new band called pulled apart by horses and they're playing their secret first-ever show somewhere in leeds. if you want to come send a text to this mobile number and we'll put you on the list and tell you where it is." it was at the pack horse, the chief watering hole of everyone who's anyone in the city, and where james was living, that the show took place. being the epicentre of the city's alt.rock community it was a full house, the band hit the ground running and have barely stopped gigging since. 'chaotic' is a massive understatement for the nuclear-powered pabh live experience, their every show a violent whirlwind of noise and acrobatics - of the body as much as the guitar. in a much kinder sense, the band's onstage antics echo the medieval execution technique after which they were named. certainly, the members have the scars to prove it. now, signed with transgressive records, they release their eponymous debut album. recorded at bridlington's lodge studios with producer james kenosha, the album expertly captures the cavalcade of their live shows while expanding the sound into that of a proper gleaming rock record. capturing this energy was the most crucial thing. says tom: "most of the takes that we kept were from a bit later on when we started to loosen it a bit. it's a bit more on the edge because there was more energy going into it. if there was any bum notes or fuck ups, if thee energy was there the we kept it as it was." "we were very aware that when you have a reputation as a live band then your album will be judged against your live shows so we knew we had to do the live show justice. but we're very happy with it."
description from www.roughtrade.com