{"id":1299,"date":"2025-03-31T12:25:29","date_gmt":"2025-03-31T11:25:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mekons.de\/news\/?p=1299"},"modified":"2025-03-31T12:43:02","modified_gmt":"2025-03-31T11:43:02","slug":"new-album-horror","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/mekons.de\/news\/?p=1299","title":{"rendered":"New album: Horror"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Legendary postmodern, post punk, post human, past caring collective Mekons return with a brand-new album for 2025. Their first release on Fire Records, \u2018Horror\u2019 provides a horribly prescient reflection of the world in its current miasma and how we got here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2018Horror\u2019 looks at history and the legacies of British imperialism with mashed up lyrics set against a typically eclectic sound that amalgamates everything from dub, country, noise, rock &amp; roll, electronica, punk, music hall, polka and you can even take your partner for a nice waltz on \u2018Sad And Sad And Sad\u2019. The roots of their global sound reflect their nomadic journey through time and space from Leeds to California in the West and Siberia in the East and is woven into the fabric and intricacies of their song creation\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sounding like The Chills and R.E.M circa the I.R.S Records years, \u2018Mudcrawlers\u2019 sees just about the whole band joining Jon Langford on vocals speaking of Irish famine and refugees journeying to Wales. \u2018War Economy\u2019 shivers in the cold of such Boroughs spiked one-liners: \u201cClinical coercion will not achieve dominance!\u201d Sounding like its straight off a Jenny Holzer neon sign (she of Abuse Of Power Comes As No Surprise), it\u2019s held together by a disgruntled swaggering riff that underpins an explosion of disquiet.<br>Meanwhile, Rico takes the lead on the maliciously luscious \u2018Fallen Leaves\u2019 an appalled and appalling Hammer Horror take on climate breakdown reminiscent of Rolling Thunder Dylan, that recalls The Pogues at their most introspective, its Celtic twilightism augmented by Susie Honeyman\u2019s keening violin as the dying sun sinks down and the river Styx flows on in the pitch black night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Almost 50 years in the making, these Mekons continue to astound, their sound, sentiment and method of delivery blended to perfection by bass player and studio wizard, Dave Trumfio. The Mekons are Jon Langford, Sally Timms, Tom Greenhalgh, Dave Trumfio, Susie Honeyman, Rico Bell, Steve Goulding, and Lu Edmonds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Buy from: <a href=\"https:\/\/mekons.bandcamp.com\/album\/horror\">https:\/\/mekons.bandcamp.com\/album\/horror<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">SONGS:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>1.The Western Design 04:38<br>2.Sad<br>3.Glasgow<br>4.Fallen Leaves 03:10<br>5.War Economy 02:55<br>6.Mudcrawlers 03:19<br>7.A Horse Has Escaped<br>8.Private Defense Contractor<br>9.Sanctuary<br>10.Surrender<br>11.You&#8217;re Not Singing Anymore 03:17<br>12.Before The Ice Age<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lyrics are <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/mekons.de\/news\/?p=1297\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">HERE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Videos:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Mekons - Fallen Leaves (Official Video)\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DNlclWS_-hs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Reviews<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>German Rolling Stone:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>TROJAN HORSE OF POP<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Forty Years After Their Founding, Jon Langford Talks About the Lasting Power of the MEKONS<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By <a><\/a>J\u00f6rg Feyer<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, it all started with Oliver Cromwell and the British Empire. Has he read Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel\u2019s Thomas Cromwell saga? Not the book, says Jon Langford, but he did watch the TV series. \u201cA political soap opera with lessons for today. It seemed like a good idea to go back to the origins of the whole mess with The Western Design.\u201d As for those who accuse him of \u201ccultural appropriation\u201d because the song\u2014about the 1655 annexation of Jamaica\u2014comes in an offbeat rhythm, he shrugs: \u201cHonestly, I don\u2019t get it. I just grew up with reggae. It would be ridiculous to forbid myself from playing it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Western Design opens the new Mekons album Horror, a title Langford believes \u201cworks on many levels,\u201d especially now that technological progress has \u201cexhausted our ability to control our future.\u201d The cover reflects this horror best, as does the song A Horse Has Escaped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But haven\u2019t the Mekons, ever since their founding in Leeds in 1976, always been a kind of Trojan horse in pop music? Langford laughs. \u201cYeah, maybe. But when we showed up in the middle of the night, they just sent us off into the desert.\u201d Sure, they wanted to \u201cscare the industry a little,\u201d but they also recognized \u201cthe limits of punk.\u201d Right from their debut single Never Been In A Riot, which was a counterpoint to the \u201cmassively misunderstood\u201d Clash song White Riot. \u201cWe liked the energy,\u201d Langford recalls\u2014he and Tom Greenhalgh being the only remaining founding members\u2014\u201cbut all that bravado seemed uninteresting. A bit overblown. Heavy metal already existed! So we wanted to cool things down with an anti-macho song.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Poetry Over Slogans<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, in 2025, Horror turns things up in a way only the Mekons can. Poetry still triumphs over clich\u00e9s, dialectics over convenient slogans. The album mixes salon waltz (Sad), a stripped-down Stones riff (Glasgow), and a tight nod to their early heroes Gang of Four (War Economy), alongside the spoken-word apocalypse of Before The Ice Age and the anthemic folk-rock banger You\u2019re Not Singing Anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Langford already had that song in his pocket when the eight band members traveled from Chicago (Jon, Sally), New York (Steve), California (Dave, Rico), and the good old UK (Susie, Lu, Tom) to Valencia, where a friend offered them a studio\u2014one previously praised by other friends like Robert Lloyd (Nightingales) and Janet Bean (Freakwater) for its great equipment. \u201cI didn\u2019t even have to pack my guitar\u2014just my swim trunks,\u201d Langford says. A bit of swimming, great food down by the docks, and then \u201ceight hours in the studio.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s how \u201crelaxed\u201d things can be in Valencia. But of course, it\u2019s also the city where General Franco \u201cdrove democracy into the sea.\u201d For a long time, an omert\u00e0 surrounded the crimes of his regime. Before recording, Langford read extensively about Valencia, the mass graves, the DNA tests, and the story of an 82-year-old woman who discovered that her father had been buried there\u2014murdered when she was just six years old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You\u2019re Not Singing Anymore tells of how the past refuses to stay buried, even when people try\u2014\u201cbecause the truth always finds its way to the surface.\u201d Other songs, like Private Defense Contractor, emerged spontaneously during late-night sessions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For Exquisite (2020\/22), they had to work remotely due to the pandemic. But the Mekons are never truly the Mekons unless all eight members are in the same room with a few ideas bouncing around. \u201cThat\u2019s when this special energy happens, and we just crank out the songs together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI Didn\u2019t Even Have to Pack My Guitar\u2014Just My Swim Trunks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By the time Columbia University hosted a symposium in 2014 alongside the documentary Revenge of the Mekons, featuring Jonathan Franzen and filmmaker Mary Harron, the cultural relevance of these art-school dropouts was beyond question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt was bizarre being the only Mekon on stage,\u201d Langford recalls, surrounded by people he \u201ctotally admired.\u201d Vito Acconci read and read from a long script until the moderator had had enough. Then it was Franzen\u2019s turn\u2014he simply read the lyrics to Dear Sausage. \u201cThat was a fantastic compliment because it meant: This speaks for itself. It was a great response from an artist and really beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The only thing that could top it for Jon Langford this summer? Getting to exhibit his artwork at the museum in his hometown, Newport, Wales. When he moved to the U.S. in 1991 for love, he found himself \u201cwriting a lot about Wales. The unconscious mind writes most of the songs, after all.\u201d Staying connected to Newport, creatively and personally, has always been important to him. \u201cBut my painting and my songs\u2014they\u2019ve always been part of the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>From Medienkonverter:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>German Rolling Stone:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>TROJAN HORSE OF POP<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Forty Years After Their Founding, Jon Langford Talks About the Lasting Power of the MEKONS<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By <a><\/a>J\u00f6rg Feyer<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, it all started with Oliver Cromwell and the British Empire. Has he read Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel\u2019s Thomas Cromwell saga? Not the book, says Jon Langford, but he did watch the TV series. \u201cA political soap opera with lessons for today. It seemed like a good idea to go back to the origins of the whole mess with The Western Design.\u201d As for those who accuse him of \u201ccultural appropriation\u201d because the song\u2014about the 1655 annexation of Jamaica\u2014comes in an offbeat rhythm, he shrugs: \u201cHonestly, I don\u2019t get it. I just grew up with reggae. It would be ridiculous to forbid myself from playing it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Western Design opens the new Mekons album Horror, a title Langford believes \u201cworks on many levels,\u201d especially now that technological progress has \u201cexhausted our ability to control our future.\u201d The cover reflects this horror best, as does the song A Horse Has Escaped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But haven\u2019t the Mekons, ever since their founding in Leeds in 1976, always been a kind of Trojan horse in pop music? Langford laughs. \u201cYeah, maybe. But when we showed up in the middle of the night, they just sent us off into the desert.\u201d Sure, they wanted to \u201cscare the industry a little,\u201d but they also recognized \u201cthe limits of punk.\u201d Right from their debut single Never Been In A Riot, which was a counterpoint to the \u201cmassively misunderstood\u201d Clash song White Riot. \u201cWe liked the energy,\u201d Langford recalls\u2014he and Tom Greenhalgh being the only remaining founding members\u2014\u201cbut all that bravado seemed uninteresting. A bit overblown. Heavy metal already existed! So we wanted to cool things down with an anti-macho song.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Poetry Over Slogans<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, in 2025, Horror turns things up in a way only the Mekons can. Poetry still triumphs over clich\u00e9s, dialectics over convenient slogans. The album mixes salon waltz (Sad), a stripped-down Stones riff (Glasgow), and a tight nod to their early heroes Gang of Four (War Economy), alongside the spoken-word apocalypse of Before The Ice Age and the anthemic folk-rock banger You\u2019re Not Singing Anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Langford already had that song in his pocket when the eight band members traveled from Chicago (Jon, Sally), New York (Steve), California (Dave, Rico), and the good old UK (Susie, Lu, Tom) to Valencia, where a friend offered them a studio\u2014one previously praised by other friends like Robert Lloyd (Nightingales) and Janet Bean (Freakwater) for its great equipment. \u201cI didn\u2019t even have to pack my guitar\u2014just my swim trunks,\u201d Langford says. A bit of swimming, great food down by the docks, and then \u201ceight hours in the studio.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s how \u201crelaxed\u201d things can be in Valencia. But of course, it\u2019s also the city where General Franco \u201cdrove democracy into the sea.\u201d For a long time, an omert\u00e0 surrounded the crimes of his regime. Before recording, Langford read extensively about Valencia, the mass graves, the DNA tests, and the story of an 82-year-old woman who discovered that her father had been buried there\u2014murdered when she was just six years old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You\u2019re Not Singing Anymore tells of how the past refuses to stay buried, even when people try\u2014\u201cbecause the truth always finds its way to the surface.\u201d Other songs, like Private Defense Contractor, emerged spontaneously during late-night sessions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For Exquisite (2020\/22), they had to work remotely due to the pandemic. But the Mekons are never truly the Mekons unless all eight members are in the same room with a few ideas bouncing around. \u201cThat\u2019s when this special energy happens, and we just crank out the songs together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI Didn\u2019t Even Have to Pack My Guitar\u2014Just My Swim Trunks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By the time Columbia University hosted a symposium in 2014 alongside the documentary Revenge of the Mekons, featuring Jonathan Franzen and filmmaker Mary Harron, the cultural relevance of these art-school dropouts was beyond question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt was bizarre being the only Mekon on stage,\u201d Langford recalls, surrounded by people he \u201ctotally admired.\u201d Vito Acconci read and read from a long script until the moderator had had enough. Then it was Franzen\u2019s turn\u2014he simply read the lyrics to Dear Sausage. \u201cThat was a fantastic compliment because it meant: This speaks for itself. It was a great response from an artist and really beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The only thing that could top it for Jon Langford this summer? Getting to exhibit his artwork at the museum in his hometown, Newport, Wales. When he moved to the U.S. in 1991 for love, he found himself \u201cwriting a lot about Wales. The unconscious mind writes most of the songs, after all.\u201d Staying connected to Newport, creatively and personally, has always been important to him. \u201cBut my painting and my songs\u2014they\u2019ve always been part of the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>From <a href=\"https:\/\/www.medienkonverter.de\/artikel\/mekons-neues-album-horror-ein-postpunkiges-meisterwerk-voller-geschichte-und-wahnsinn\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Medienkonverter<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nach \u00fcber 50 Jahren Chaos, Kreativit\u00e4t und klanglicher Weltreise sind die &#8216;Mekons&#8217; zur\u00fcck \u2013 und sie haben nichts von ihrem Biss verloren! Ihr neues Album &#8216;Horror&#8217;, das am 4. April 2025 \u00fcber Fire Records erscheint, verspricht eine d\u00fcstere, wilde und doch herrlich verspielte Auseinandersetzung mit britischer Geschichte und globalen Abgr\u00fcnden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bereits die erste Single &#8216;Mudcrawlers&#8217; katapultiert dich zur\u00fcck in die Tage, als &#8216;R.E.M.&#8217; und &#8216;The Chills&#8217; bei &#8216;I.R.S. Records&#8217; ihre Magie verspr\u00fchten. Hier singt Jon Langford \u00fcber irische Fl\u00fcchtlinge, die in Wales an schlammbedeckten Ufern strandeten \u2013 musikalisch so melancholisch wie ein Sonnenuntergang im Regen. Doch das ist erst der Auftakt! &#8216;War Economy&#8217; wird dich mit seinem zornigen Riff und Jenny-Holzer-Vibes ordentlich durchr\u00fctteln, w\u00e4hrend &#8216;Sad And Sad And Sad&#8217; beweist, dass man sogar beim Walzer \u00fcber die Tragik des Lebens nachdenken kann. Und &#8216;Fallen Leaves&#8217;? Eine Dylan-mit-Pogues-verr\u00fchrte Hymne \u00fcber den Klimazusammenbruch, bei der Susie Honeymans Geige klingt, als w\u00fcrde der Fluss Styx pers\u00f6nlich den Beat vorgeben.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Die Mekons haben das Release in Valencia aufgenommen, ausgerechnet dort, wo einst Franco die Demokratie versenkte \u2013 und das Album strotzt nur so vor historischem Subtext und musikalischer Experimentierfreude. Mal schippern sie mit &#8216;The Western Design&#8217; in Shanty-Gew\u00e4sser, mal bringen sie dich mit &#8216;A Horse Has Escaped&#8217; in ein viktorianisches Drama, das selbst Charles Dickens die Tr\u00e4nen in die Augen treiben w\u00fcrde. Ob Punk, Polka oder Dub \u2013 die Mekons verschmelzen alles zu einem Sound, der die Jahrzehnte ebenso trotzt wie sie selbst. Und auch mit fast einem halben Jahrhundert Bandgeschichte beweisen sie: Langweilig ist anders! Wenn du bereit bist f\u00fcr ein Album, das dich tanzen, nachdenken und vielleicht ein bisschen verzweifeln l\u00e4sst, dann markier dir den 4. April fett im Kalender. Die Mekons kommen \u2013 und sie haben keine Angst, tief im Schlammbad der Geschichte zu w\u00fchlen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Legendary postmodern, post punk, post human, past caring collective Mekons return with a brand-new album for 2025. Their first release<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1302,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mekons.de\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/mekons.de\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/mekons.de\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mekons.de\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mekons.de\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1299"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/mekons.de\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1313,"href":"http:\/\/mekons.de\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1299\/revisions\/1313"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mekons.de\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mekons.de\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mekons.de\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mekons.de\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}