By Peter Doherty
After playing gig-after-gig across the North East, and even making it as far as Manchester on a couple of occasions, House Proud, the North East’s premier Post-Punkers, have released their debut EP Choices. At five tracks – four full pieces and an intro – and 12-minutes in length, House Proud welcome us into the heavily Post-Hardcore infused and seismic spheres of mare-deluged mindsets. Made up of completely new House Proud material in the sense of studio recordings – initial singles of “Rescue Dog” and “Farmers” are nowhere to be seen – Choices feels like a fresh start.
Opening with the succinctly titled “Intro”, a spacious tone-setter of sorts, House Proud set the stage for an atmospherically tinged and blustery anffair. Reverb-heavy drums, courtesy of Cole David, and a swelling of guitars, courtesy of Ben MarFn and James Dryburgh, open up the channel for Rory Maclean to drive forth with a gear-shifing bassline as we’re pulled straight into “Barber”. Said track was my intro to House Proud in early 2024, albeit a live version on the band’s then debut recorded at The Bunker. Vocal effects and heavy whacks of distortion on the guitar front add a sense of immediacy, urgency. Grizzly basslines underlie a sea of angst. For those that have had the pleasure of attending a House Proud gig within the last year or so, these tracks may sound familiar; the lads have been cookin’ right before our very eyes. The songs are blistered by thick, robust production which manages to keep its clarity – kudos to the recording engineer for plucking the chaos and placing it in order. The comedic back-and-forth of:
‘Every time I see you in public I wanna rip my eyes out with a wooden spoon.’
on “Choices” lightens the heavy load in which the track lives under.
Warsaw era Joy Division comes through on the title track: the early inklings of something special. This will not be the first or last time that House Proud will be appendaged to a Joy Division likeliness. The ghost of Ian Curtis swells all around the project. Especially on “That Wasn’t the Plan”.
Lacquered in a sullen state, a Gothic weight sticks to it like hot glue. Squawk-y guitars accompany the chorus of:
‘You’ve got to let it goooo
You’ve got to BREATHE IT IN.’
King Krule is another artist that comes to mind while “That Wasn’t the Plan” plays; especially the more intimate recordings in Hey World! released after the Man Alive! record. Not necessarily the outward energy of the track, but the inward essence. One of my favourite moments on the project is the brief loosening after the second chorus of said track. The song slips into a reminiscent state, a bit of a breakdown, before the track builds back up to speed and towards it’s finish line – it doesn’t stay there long, but it’s a brief moment of quality, a silver lining from behind the weighted lyrics and pressurised angst held within the track’s walls.
‘Sleepless nights, I guess that wasn’t the plan.’ The sub-two-minute storm of “What Do You See” sees the project out.
‘England’s burning and we’re all gonna die.’
The lads have done an excellent job of capturing the energy of their live shows. These tracks were moulded by live performances – forged in the fire, so to speak. Pulled back from the brink and housed in a tight 12-minute project, ‘Choices’ captures one of the North East’s premier Post-Punk collectives.
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