NEW HORIZZZONS play Wavelength’s Endless Summer at Vintage and Flea Outdoor Market on Saturday (August 16). See listing. Rating: NNN
Toronto’s New Horizzzons are a weirdo supergroup. Robert Dayton of Vancouver’s good-times Canned Hamm sings and writes the lyrics, while Craig Daniels, one half of the sadly missed Leather Uppers and Tijuana Bibles, is guitarist/bassist/drummer. Michael Comeau, who shares duties with Daniels, is formerly of LSDoubleD Cup and a noted local cartoonist.
Add in production by Yamantaka//Sonic Titan’s Alaska B and you’re bound to get something interesting. Which we do on the trio’s four-song EP, recorded live without a single vocal or guitar overdub. It’s raw, sloppy, bizarre and funny. While the band druggily churns out minimalist psychotropic haze and reverby wah-wah-pedal adventures, Dayton croons and intones (and sometimes huffs and puffs).
“We’re building our brand,” he ironically drawls on the song of the same name amid slow psychedelic doom, before exploring angrier territory on the spikier Spring Thaw. Not sold? Download codes come inside hand-drawn, risograph-printed packages containing four incense sticks. So you can smell the songs, too.
Top track: Spring Thaw
