Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site over the past couple of years, you’ve likely come across a handful of posts on the Brooklyn-based, JOVM mainstay post-punk act, The Harrow. Deriving their name from a name of a device used to punish and torture prisoners in the Franz Kafka short story “In the Penal Colony,” the band can trace a portion of their origins back to 2008 when its founding member Frank Deserto (bass, synths and electronics) started it as a solo recording project that expanded into a full band in 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. And over a period of a couple of years, the quartet released the “Mouth to Mouth”/”Ringing the Changes” 7 inch and their full-length effort Silhouette to critical praise from the likes of The Deli Magazine, The Big Takeover, Impose, AltSounds as well as this site for a sound that is deeply indebted to The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Joy Division, and others — although Silhouette, which was mixed by friend and frequent collaborator, Automelodi‘s Xavier Paradis revealed a band that had expanded upon the sound that first won the attention of the blogosphere, as lush and shimmering guitar chords, played through layers of reverb, delay and other effects pedals were paired with sinuous bass lines, propulsive drum programming that frequently nodded at Depeche Mode and New Order, swirling electronics and Irena’s plaintive and ethereal vocals.
It’s been a couple of years since I’ve last written about them; however, the band’s frequent collaborator and friend, the aforementioned Xavier Paradis recently remixed “Kaleidoscope” as part of the band’s remix album Points of View, which will be comprised of remixes, reworks and interpretations of songs off Silhouettes by various friends, collaborators and associates — as part of a “living” album that will grow as they receive additional contributions. The original version of the song is a slow-burning, hazily atmospheric track featuring shimmering guitar chords, four-on-the-floor like drum programming and Irena’s plaintive vocals ethereally floating over a moody, 4AD Records-lenaing mix.
Paradis’ Automelodi Sonnambula Mix of “Kaleidoscope is a propulsive, Depeche Mode and New Order-inspired, dance floor remix in which industrial clang and clatter and propulsive and forceful beats are paired with the original’s shimmering guitars and Irena’s ethereal vocals floating over the mix. Interestingly, while being dance floor friendly, Paradis’ remix manages to retain the original’s moody feel.
