Deriving their name from the name of a device used to torture and punish prisoners in Franz Kafka’s “In the Penal Colony,” Brooklyn-based band The Harrow can trace their origins back to 2008 when founding member Frank Deserto (bass, synth and electronics) started the band as a solo recording project; however, as an actual band, the self-described post-punk/dream pop quartet can trace its origins to 2013 when Deserto recruited Vanessa Irena (vocals, synths and programming), Barrett Hiatt (synth, programming), and Greg Fasolino (guitar) to flesh out the project’s sound.
Over the past couple of years, the Brooklyn-based post-punk quartet have released a self-titled EP and the “Mouth to Mouth”/”Ringing the Changes” 7 inch to critical praise and attention from the likes of The Deli Magazine, The Big Takeover, Impose, AltSounds and others for a sound that is deeply indebted to The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Joy Division, and others. Naturally, such attention has increased the quartet’s profile both locally and nationally.
The Harrow’s anticipated full-length debut effort, Silhouettes is slated for a November 6 release through German label aufnahme+wiedergabe, and the album mixed by friend and collaborator Xavier Paradis of Automelodi continues to expand upon the sound that first garnered the quartet attention — lush guitar chords played through layers of reverb and delay pedal, sinuous bass lines, propulsive electronic drum programming and atmospheric and swirling electronics paired with Irena’s hushed and ethereal vocals, as you’ll hear on the album’s spectral and moody first single “Love Like Shadows.”
The recently released official video is an equally eerie video shot with a film noir-ish quality that suggests that an unsettling and evil presence is lurking about in the shadows.
