Horrorshow (band)

Horrorshow is an Australian hip hop duo from the Inner West area of Sydney, Australia. The duo consists of Solo (vocals) and Adit (producer). Together with Spit Syndicate, Jackie Onassis and Joyride, Horrorshow are members of the One Day crew from the inner-west of Sydney.

Horrorshow have published four albums since 2008 as well as two singles and two recorded sets of a live performance (featuring Joyride, amongst others) which were labelled Live at the Spiegeltent an Live From The Listen Close Tour

History

The Grey Space

After signing with the Elefant Traks label, the pair released their debut album The Grey Space, an album created largely during the duo's high school years, at a time where they linked up with Spit Syndicate and Joyride to form the extended One Day crew. Elefant Traks artist and co-founder Urthboy explained the duo's recruitment in a blog post published in the lead-up to the release of Horrorshow's third album:

When Horrorshow brought me The Grey Space I deduced that they were fans of Atmosphere. They wouldn’t put "Walk You Home" on it, making the better decision to keep it for their unfinished second album, despite my wishes at the time. The first wanna join the Elefants conversation I had with them took place on the balcony at our studio/office at the time in Enmore. I remember telling them that the only way Elefant Traks could develop was if the likes of Horrorshow took the possibilities opened up by The Herd and amplify them.^[1]

The album eventually earned an ARIA nomination,^[2] and the band completed tours with The Herd, Muph & Plutonic and Hermitude.

Inside Story

After the release of their debut followed their second album Inside Story in 2009, which was acclaimed amongst their fans for its eloquent lyricism and soulful production. It was chosen as a Triple J Feature Album, FBi Album of the Week and was also favourably received by Australian music critics.

King Amongst Many

An indication of Horrorshow's third album was revealed with a song entitled "Did You Hear?", which features a horns section. On 22 December 2012, a confirmation of the third album's 2013 release was posted on the group's Facebook fan page.^[3] In early May 2013, another song "Unfair Lottery" was released on the Internet and received radio airplay. The song was made officially available in a digital format on 24 May 2013 and appears on Horrorshow's third album. The subject of "Unfair Lottery" is concerned with the racial notion of "white privilege".^[4][5] The music video for "Unfair Lottery" premiered on Channel V's "WTF" programme on 5 June 2013.^[6]

The band revealed the name of their third album King Amongst Many on 13 June 2013, following the rapid sale of tickets for the "Unfair Lottery" single launch shows.^[7] An album release date of 2 August 2013 was subsequently publicised in the promotional material for the Australian 'King Amongst Many Tour' that spans from September to November 2013.^[8]

King Amongst Many was featured as 'Album of the Week' on Australia's Triple J radio station and feature album on Sydney, Australia community radio station FBi.^[9]

Bardo State

The first indication of a fourth album from the duo came in August 2016, with the release of a new single, 'If You Know What I Mean', accompanied by a video clip and tour announcement.^[10][11] This was followed by the melancholy yet uplifting track 'Push', which featured vocals from 16-year-old Taj Ralph.^[12] On 30 January 2017, Horrorshow announced that their fourth full-length release, Bardo State, would be released on the 24 February. The album title "references The Tibetan Book of the Dead (or Bardo Thodol) and the duo wove concepts of the text into the album making process." ^[13]

Touring

The pair have sold out every headline show they have performed in Sydney. Horrorshow has also appeared at major Australian music festivals, including the Big Day Out, Splendour in the Grass and Groovin' the Moo.^[2]

In 2010 the duo travelled overseas, supporting Brother Ali and Urthboy in Germany, as well as the Hilltop Hoods at the trio's sold-out London show.

In 2012, Horrorshow again supported the Hilltop Hoods on a European tour and continued in this role for the Hilltop Hoods' "Speaking in Tongues" Australian tour.^[14] The band was included in the line-up for the 2012 Brisbane Festival^[15] and performed at the Spiegeltent venue.^[16]

In 2014, Horrorshow played support alongside Seth Sentry for Bliss n Eso on their Circus Under The Stars tour.

In 2015, Horrorshow embarked on their national Listen Close tour, with support from Thundamentals rapper Tuka.

In 2016, Horrorshow completed a sold-out Australian tour with Elefant Traks label-mate B Wise and Australian poet/rapper/author Omar Musa.

Collaborations

The following is a list of tracks on which Solo has appeared:

• Urthboy - "Them Shackles" with Jane Tyrrell from Spitshine (2009)
• Urthboy - "On Your Shoulders" with Jimblah from Smokey's Haunt (2012)
• Spit Syndicate - "Here Today Gone Tomorrow", "On & On" and "All Summer Long (Part Two)" from Towards The Light (2008)
• Spit Syndicate - "Showtime" and "Contour Lines" from Exile (2010)
• Spit Syndicate - "Venice Queen" from Best Intentions Mixtape (Part One) (2011)
• Spit Syndicate - "Along The Way" from Sunday Gentlemen (2013)
• Illy - "Red Light Green Light" with Spit Syndicate and Cisco Tavares from Long Story Short (2009)
• M-Phazes - "For What It's Worth" from Good Gracious (2010)
• Tuka - "Mr. Inside" from Feedback Loop (2012)
• Thundamentals - "Got Love" from So We Can Remember (2014)
• Chasm - "Highs And Lows" with Fashawn and David Dallas from This Is How We Never Die (2012)
• Jackie Onassis - "Back Home Again" from Juliette EP (2014)
• Hilltop Hoods - "The Underground" with Classified from Drinking From The Sun (2012)
• Mantra - "Dead Em'" with Illy, Jeremedy (Grey Ghost), Urthboy and Muph from Speaking Volumes (2011)
• Joyride - "Pretend (Cecila) Gmix" with Nick Lupi from Honourable EP

Awards

Horrorshow's third studio album release appeared in the Full Shortlist for the 9th Australian Music Prize (AMP), which was unveiled at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne, Australia on 26 January 2014. Selected from a 'Longlist' of 43 artists, Horrorshow was nominated for King Amongst Many, while label-mate Jimblah was nominated for his second albumPhoenix. Other artists in the Full Shortlist included Beaches and Big Scary, and the judges were presented with an original list of 300 albums.^[17]

The Horrorshow song "Dead Star Shine" came in at number 98 on the Triple J Hottest 100 list in 2013.^[18]

Discography

Albums

• The Grey Space – Elefant Traks (ACE041) (16 August 2008)
• Inside Story – Elefant Traks (ACE052) (2 October 2009)
• King Amongst Many - Elefant Traks (2 August 2013) #2 ARIA^[19]
• Bardo State - Elefant Traks (24 February 2017) #4 ARIA^[19]

Live Albums

• Live At The Spiegeltent** - Elefant Traks (25 March 2013)
• Live From The Listen Close Tour - Elefant Traks (2 October 2015)

Singles

• "Did You Hear?" – Elefant Traks (ACED068) (23 November 2011)
• "Unfair Lottery" – Elefant Traks (24 May 2013)
• "Any Other Name" (with Thelma Plum, Jimblah & Urthboy) – Elefant Traks (7 August 2015)
• "If You Know What I Mean" - Elefant Tracks (Aug 2016)
• "Murder on the Dancefloor" - Posted on Soundcloud by One Day

References