Record: 28.01.07 'You Are Your Own Disease EP' (SouthSCENE)
Names can be very deceiving. When I first came across this band I was expecting some sort of Blondie-esque pop punk band. I even booked them for a gig without first really listening to them properly (I always did like living dangerously!). Admittedly though, HOW GLAD was I when not only were they not remotely like any retro pop punk band, but they were actually quite excellent.
The power of their music hit me full on in the chest. Plenty of Sonic Youth's less headfuck moments abounding throughout; An assault on the senses courtesy of the guitars and a driving rhythm section that would put even the best PA system to the test, let alone my tin-pot system! All this of course would be pointless if the vocalist was crap, thankfully the bearded Chris Beard sucks you in, like Brian Molko when he was relevant.
Of course, Harry Angel had the double-whammy to contend with where I was concerned; the hurdle of getting over their potentially stupid name and then of course, the worry that their CD would never live up to their glorious live show. So HOW GLAD was I when I put on their CD and it conveyed everything that the live show did, only this time putting my far superior speakers to the test. I like this band very much, so should you.
Mike Spall, www.southscene.net
Record: 27.01.07 'You Are Your Own Disease EP' (The-Mag)
After fighting with the protective wrapping on the CD I began to realise that Harry Angel are certainly no angels. When reading a song entitled 'Watching Her Drown' you can't help but get slightly nervous. I wondered whether I should slyly put this record back in the CD mountain so that someone else could review it, or should I risk it and just hope that Harry Angel like my honesty and don't take drastic action against me?!
However, armed with my wetsuit, snorkel and orange armbands, I'm ready for them to bring it on! 'Watching Her Drown' is full of guitar angst and heavy drumming. The vocal is very different, sounding like Kermit The Frog but in a good way because, when it's mixed with the short and snappy voice of Hayley Phillips, it works outstandingly well. This song eventually erupts into a moody fury, which creates gripping tension. 'Last Riot' and 'Animal' have a sweaty rhythm and head banging beats. These tracks have an underlying Placebo influence but thankfully Harry Angel show off the fact they also have a raw talent of their own.
Now I'm a very girly girl and I'm shocked that Harry Angel have had such an effect on me. They have dragged me kicking and screaming to the dark side with their moody grunge music, which I actually really like.
Beckie A, The-Mag
Gig: 22.07.06 Live set at Truck Festival main stage (Sweeping The Nation)
Saturday Fair to say that Truck is not like other festivals, or at least what we've come to know as a British festival. While the field area given over to it is bigger than you might imagine it retains the atmosphere of a friendly specialist get-together which attracts bands from right across the alternative spectrum into this magnified village fete of music. With little advertising, a friendly and not too crowded clientele and easy access to everywhere and everything it's earned its place as the cognescenti's small festival of choice at a time when The Man wants us to invest instead in the ever-growing number of heavily branded soulless park get-togethers. Hardly anybody seems to have covered Truck in the wider press, and that's what keeps it special in a way.
Not to mention that you'll get to find new things and be surprised throughout the two days. Case in point: Harry Angel, one of the many local bands dotted around the schedule waiting to be discovered in some way, shape or form. They describe themselves on their Myspace as "scrawny speed-freak goth-punk", the sort of description that would put weaker men off. In fact, think Seafood doing Mission Of Burma with Matt Tong on vocals, with elements of Ikara Colt and Girls Against Boys, barely resolved tension pushing at the edges with ever vaulting guitars bolstered by thick basslines by a tiny female bassist and rapidfire drums. An immense way to kick off the weekend.
Simon, Sweeping The Nation music blog, July 2006
Read the full Truck 2006 review here: Sweeping The Nation Stars of Truck and field Truck Festival 2006 review
Record: 11.05 'Death Valley Of The Dolls EP' (Nightshift)
Harry Angel's debut CD release is a difficult one to review in that the two lead tracks, 'Death Valley...' and 'Striptease' have both been reviewed here before, firstly as a demo and then again as part of the 'Fresh Faces For The Modern Age' compilation, a mere two months ago. What new to say then, apart from the fact that the really quite ace 'Death Valley...' increasingly reminds us of legendary local girl rockers Death By Crimpers (whose members later begat Beaker, Passion Play and Ivy's Itch), with its raging fizz of goth-pop guitars, only with Karen Crimper's awesome Janis Joplin howl replaced by Chris Beard's more languid, Americanised drawl. Think of a polite collision between Bauhaus and Placebo and that's a generous starting point. 'Striptease', meanwhile, still sounds like something robbed off the recording sessions for 'Pablo Honey', which is no bad things and suggests that Harry Angel are mining a rich seam of early-90s Oxford music.
Of the two new songs here, 'Seventeen' appears equally in thrall to The Crimpers' incendiary gothic fuzz storm, although we'd guess Harry Angel are too young to have ever clapped eyes on them, while 'Mine' cranks up the Big Black-style sheet metal mayhem, Chris does his best Albini holler and lets the song batter its way out of the sewer. If you've let Harry Angel pass you by so far, now is as good a time as ever to discover one of the most promising new noises in town. And if you can track down a copy of Death By Crimpers' long-lost classic debut single, 'Obsessive', you can rediscover one of the best old noises Oxford ever produced.
Dale Kattack, Nightshift magazine October 2005
Gig: 11.05.05 @ Kiss Bar, Oxford - The Nightshift Punt with 20+ of the best local bands
Harry Angel take to the stage, (or more appropriately, the tiny space behind one of the pillars), and blast through their set with growing confidence, a spiky mixture of Seafood, The Chameleons and, well, Harry Angel. The drums rattle away like a Gatling gun, bassist Hayley Phillips dug right into the foundations like a frenzied miner, and the enormous fidgeting Chris Beard still occupies the front slot well, leaning into the mic feverishly and looking like a werewolf stuck in the moment of transmogrification. A werewolf with a fair few goth records, I'll wager. And there you have your new sub-genre for the week - lycanthropop! Everything falls into place when Hayley starts screaming along, adding vocal texture to the layered guitars and completing the sound. The great thing about Harry Angel is they are the sum of four parts, who all contribute to make a wonderful racket of the highest order.
Oxfordbands.com
Gig: 06.05.05 @ The Zodiac, Oxford - with The Young Knives and Holiday Stabbings
A band whose early shows had the feel of an under-rehearsed college punk band and who have clearly been putting in the work to rectify that. Musically it's a cross between the faster songs of Joy Divison, Muse, Nirvana, Bends-era Radiohead and others in that area, the lead singer being a cross between a dark-haired Kurt Cobain and a tall, handsome Thom Yorke, and his backing band (as that does seem to be what they are) are solid and able to keep the pace. It's a well-paced set, with the last three songs particularly strong - 'Jigsaw Life' hitting all the right buttons, 'Death Valley of The Dolls' ratcheting things up and 'Mine' an excellent closer - and it seems fair to say that Harry Angel are becoming something of a powerful proposition.
Sarah Morton, Oxfordbands.com
Gig: 01.05.05 @ Exeter Hall, Oxford - Klub Kakofanney Mayday Festival
The night really starts with the arrival of Harry Angel in all their goth-punk glory. Taut, angular Bauhaus-style rackets led by a great tall chap leaning over the mic like the speed-freak son of the Twin Peaks giant: time for a celebratory beer.
David Murphy, Oxfordbands.com
Recording: 03.05 'Death Valley of the Dolls / Striptease' demo
Another act with at least one or two Radiohead albums in their collection, Harry Angel also retain their dignity on songs like 'Striptease', which, if you're being really cynical, could have been stolen from the demo sessions for 'The Bends', but manages to plough an admirably melodic but cacophonus furrow, with its alternately sweeping and angular guitar noise. But it's 'Death Valley Of The Dolls' that impresses more. With echoes of Bauhuas' 'In The Flat Field' in it's gothic heaviness, offset by bassist Hayley Phillips' Kim Gordon-style backing vocals, it careers towards an imagined precipice with lead singer Chris Beard hollering "The dolls are closing in", and you can start to feel the creeping claustrophobia.
Nightshift - Oxford's Music Magazine (March 2005)
Gig: 23.12.04 @ Wheatsheaf, Oxford with Sexy Breakfast and Diatribe
Harry Angel front man Chris Beard is a man who, by his own admission, likes to dye his hair in the dark while listening to brutal American art-core outfit Swans. As such his new band is never going to be a bundle of joy and goodwill to all men. Hell, they're even named after the lead character in Faustian horror flick, Angel Heart. No, instead Harry Angel mix a rough and ready crash through backwoods grunge and often disconcerting falsetto (the guy's at least seven feet tall, for goodness sake and towers over bassist Hayley Phillips whose guitar looks bigger than she is) has already drawn comparisons with Thom Yorke, but here any resemblance to Radiohead begins and ends. Energy levels start high and the wall of guitar noise that bolsters the melodies holds everything together, although the set does lose cohesion in the middle, the pace dropping and things meandering. It's rescued before the death though by the juddering, hotwired 'Mine', which slams back in your face when you're almost resigned to staring into your pint for the rest of the set. A band still on the make then, but definitely heading the right way up the street.
John Leeson, Nightshift - Oxford's Music Magazine (Feb 2005)
Preview: On The Rise - The best new local acts to see in 2005
Amongst other indie hopefuls around town, newcomers Harry Angel (yes, named after Mickey Rourke's character in Angel Heart) are worth hearing, distilling their myriad classic pop influences into something, if not wholly new, then more than the sum of its parts.
Nightshift - Oxford's Music Magazine (Jan 2005)