It's already been called drag, witch house and haunted house, but like all up-and-coming niche sub-genres there's no widely-agreed-upon name for it yet. In fact, other than Pitchfork’s obsessive categorising of everything that omits an audible peep, trump or shizzle, it's probably not even a recognised scene as such. What it actually is, is a group of young, geographically scattered artists concurrently exploring spooky, sloth-paced-electro-pop. This group’s ethos is epitomised by The Horn The Hunt, whose influences are as diverse as Kate Bush, geology, David Lynch, Russian landscape painters from the 1800s, Rammstein, taxidermy and Haruki Murakami, and whose songs are layered in an accessible majesty that is reminiscent of long-forgotten folk stories, embellished with futuristic sounds, contemporary beats and an engulfing presence.
Their self-titled debut album, released independently in 2009, was recorded over an itchy-footed four-year period. The duo (Clare Carter and Joseph Osborne) began writing and recording songs in a flat in Sandnes, Norway, then made some more in a room carved into the side of a canyon in Spain, before departing for an old school in Dordrecht, Holland. Finally the album was completed in a bedroom studio in Leeds, where they’re now (temporarily at least) moored (like the good ship Negative Narrative). Quite the travellers, they also lived for three months in Greenland where they spent half their time in perpetual darkness, six-hundred miles north of the Arctic Circle on a tiny, isolated island. These extreme environments - and the exposure to the landscapes, people and history of such places - have had an undoubtedly profound effect on their art, and, judging by their clobber in these photos, possibly also their sanity.
‘Raptor’ is the first single (it's out on 1 November) to be taken from The Horn The Hunt's second album ‘Depressur Jolie’ which is set to drop in early 2011. Alongside these awesome photos which borrow heavily from their time abroad (check out the bloodied bear) we have the delightful Aztec Remix of the single to dish out to you. Don’t forget to say 'Takk’.