The breakneck alt rock / feargach punk angular attack of "Horatio Burns", by West Yorkshire bred, Glasgow based post punk provocateurs Conscious Pilot, feels so relentless as to make you feel out of breath on one hand and on the other might make you want to run down city streets and break things (figuratively of course). Everytime I hear CP and their artful explosiveness with their signature sort of Buzzcocks-ian rabid bass lines, percussive assualting proggy guitar lines and slapping drums attack, that kind of push and prod each other like an instrumental bloody mosh pit as a framework for Joe Laycock's snarling vocal diatribe, I am glad that this band exists. It is not often that bands doing this kind of thing (a collision of social commentary, poltico punk and art punk / alt rock) is able to grab you by the shirt collar and push you around while also creating something thought provoking and bloody cool too.
About CP's sound I previously wrote "comfortably straddles the performance art lipstick of proto punk artists like Human Sexual Response and the self flagellation of artists like The Dead Kennedy's or The Grim and I am speaking of attitudinal artistic outcomes, not necessarily direct sonic linkage" and this idea of crushing together historical contexts, multitudes of genres, progressive art movements with instrumental / poeteic mortars and pestle to snort up into your art brain may not be a fresh idea but as our collective music has become so fucking cookie cutter, CP's aesthetic feels exquisitely refreshing.
LINER NOTES (excerpted / bracketed):
[Yet it’s the album’s focus track, “Horatio Burns”, that emerges as a defining moment on (their debut album) "Human Poultry". The song presents a fictional biography of a struggling, morally dubious film director whose desperate attempts to make his career financially viable force him into an increasingly chaotic, self-sufficient existence. Inspired by Richard Ayoade’s novel The Unfinished Harauld Hughes, the lyrics trace a character unravelling in real time — stumbling through his own ambitions, driven by a stubborn commitment to keep going despite mounting frustration.]
[Caught between his love of the craft and his disdain for the industry, his peers and the audience itself, the protagonist becomes a reflection of creative isolation taken to its extreme, assuming multiple roles in his own production out of both necessity and a perceived lack of talent around him. In this way, “Horatio Burns” doubles as a wider commentary — mirroring the band’s own relationship with the music industry, where frustration with its limitations sits alongside a deep appreciation for the independence and immediacy of DIY culture.]
pAs the band explain: “It’s about someone who’s completely consumed by what they do — to the point where they can’t see straight anymore. He loves it, but he also resents everything around it, and that contradiction just keeps pushing him further into doing everything himself. I think we recognised a bit of ourselves in that — the frustration, but also the drive to just keep making things regardless.”]
+ + +
[The record was recorded and mixed at RAK Studios in London with Seth Evans (Black Midi, Shame, Geordie Greep) and Adele Phillips (Fontaines DC), and mastered by Felix Davis (Geese, The Vaccines). Artwork comes from Scottish painter Keiti Forbes.]
[Conscious Pilot are Joe Laycock (vocals & guitar), Emmy Leishman (guitar & vocals), Jack Sharp (bass & vocals) and Chris McCrory (drums) — a lineup that also includes members of Cheap Teeth, Catholic Action and Big Girls Blouse. Formed in 2023 after Yorkshire-born songwriters Joe and Jack relocated to Glasgow, the band have quickly become one of the UK’s most compelling live acts, with appearances at The Great Escape, multiple UK tours, and a European run in 2025 including Hamburg’s Reeperbahn Festival. Two EPs, Epoxy Plains and Wipe Clean, laid the groundwork. Human Poultry is the full statement.]
-Robb Donker Curtius
Lyrics
Enter the scene with some feeling
Or it won't deserve a curtain call
He wants a personal healing
Because he's an emotional boy
I know they film sex in the pictures with a 30mm roll
And I know they'll cash cheques in the bank from Horatio's soul
Blame for the FDA
Toupée is blowing away
Written by
Starring
Casting
Horatio Burns
Pay for the service you're streaming
It's not a secret that he's poor
48 eyes in the ceiling
Up in the rafters to the floor
I know they film death in the pictures with a 40mm roll
I know he'll flip press from inside of a limo window
Blame for the CSA
L.A. over to Taipei
Written by
Starring
Casting
Horatio Burns
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
https://www.instagram.com/consciouspilot/
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61552124134253
https://x.com/consciouspilotx
Founded by Joe Laycock and Jack Sharp as a successor to theatrical punk group Cheap Teeth, the pair birthed the project from their joint love of immersive, beat-driven soundscapes and an exploration of subtle shifts. Featuring members of Catholic Action and Pressure Retreat, the band aims to urge the listener’s ear into progressively choppy waters whilst simultaneously grounding them in firm lyrical soil. Having built up an archive of songs over the past year, the band is set to peek their head above water with lead single “Halfway to Hockney”. Recorded by Matt Peel at the Nave in Leeds, the track is centred forgivingly around an individual’s thirst for meaning, as the protagonist falls perilously from the tree of self-identity, grasping at every characteristic branch on the way down, desperate to not be swept away by their impending crisis.
Conscious Pilot, "Horatio Burns" (Official Video), art punk, post punk, alt rock, feargach punk, Crafted by Joe Laycock and Jack Sharp, post punk revival, debut album "Human Poultry", thought provoking, politico punk,
No comments:
Post a Comment