Melbourne rock collective Horizon have dropped a powerful new live performance video for ‘Primitive’, the pulsing centrepiece of their self-titled album.
Filmed at Brunswick’s Wick Studios, the same venue that hosted the band’s album launch earlier this year, the video places Horizon in their most natural setting: a room, a stage, and a sound that crackles with immediacy. Directed by Gary Robertson of Jarrah Film, the clip captures the band performing with no artifice, using light, shadow and movement to channel the raw instinct that defines the song.
“‘Primitive’ has always felt like the heartbeat of the record,” frontman Lee Bradshaw said. “It’s instinctive, human, and deeply connected to where our sound begins.”
That heartbeat is audible from the first slide of Brett Garsed’s guitar, a tone instantly recognisable to Australian ears from his era with John Farnham, particularly Two Strong Hearts and the Whispering Jack tour years. Primitive soon evolves into a heavy, blues-driven swirl, guided by Angus Burchall’s earthy drums and Richard Panaia’s anchoring bass. Bradshaw’s voice sits at the centre, soulful but unpolished, framing the song as “a reckoning with what it means to be human when stripped of pretence – reduced to flesh, blood, instinct and dust.”
Horizon’s self-titled debut has been a long time coming. Its roots stretch back nearly a decade to recording sessions that featured the final studio performances of Stuart ‘Chet’ Fraser, the beloved Noiseworks guitarist who passed away in 2019. Those early sessions, captured before Fraser’s illness, laid the foundation for what would become Horizon’s lasting tribute to both his playing and his spirit.
“It did turn out to be Stuart Fraser’s last album recording,” Bradshaw explains. “It was just before he became ill, and it’s great to see that footage again – to see him in full flight.”
Fraser’s presence runs through every part of Horizon. His riffs, arrangements and visual concepts helped shape the band’s identity. After his death, Bradshaw and the group carefully completed the album using Fraser’s original ideas, determined to maintain his creative fingerprint. “It was a head-scratcher after Chet passed away,” Bradshaw admits. “But he was so passionate about this record. What you’ll hear is still so much of him.”
The album was mastered by Leon Zervos at Studios 301, honouring Fraser’s wishes.
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