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 as well as this site, where they have become something of a mainstay artist for a sound that is deeply indebted to The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Joy Division, and others. And as a result of such attention, the quartet’s profile has grown both locally and nationally.
The Harrow’s much-anticipated full-length effort, Silhouette was released last month 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, much like what you would have heard on the album’s spectral and moody first single “Love Like Shadows.” The album’s latest single “Feral Haze” will further cement the band’s burgeoning reputation for crafting a lush guitar and drum programming-based sound; however, the latest single manages to be more sensual and dance floor-orientated and sounds as though it were informed by Depeche Mode and New Order.
The recently released music video mixes both animation and live action in a video that possesses a surreal, dream-like logic as nature takes over the manmade and dreams take over reality.