Artist: Boy Harsher
Title: Hard Beat / Jeans
Genre: EBM / Darkwave / Coldwave
Release Date: 18th September 2026 (album)
Label: Boy Harsher under license to Atlantic Recording Corp
Track Review
‘Get Mean’ will be BOY HARSHER’s 6th album release since forming all the way back in 2014. The album will air itself to the general public from September 18th and will be the first since Jae Mathews and August Muller parted as a couple. They’ve pretty much been a tight unit since meeting at college studying film in 2013 and starting a performance art project called TEEN DREAMZ. After 13 years and five other albums released by various labels including DKA and their own imprint, Nude Records this new affair, a collection of songs about, in the words of the band: “a meditation on Love, loss and survival” and “moving forward into renewal”.
To wet our appetites BOY HARSHER tease us with two tracks, ‘Jeans’ and ‘Hard Beat’. I like them. ‘Jeans’ is light in tone and has a tippy toe vibe about it. The lyric waxes and wanes, sometimes wry and humorous, sometimes mocking and alludes to a relationship breakdown, the shock of it, the thoughts of “what next?” and “what was the point?”. Why go through all of that emotional, physical and collaborative commitment when giving it all up to “just to sell ‘Jeans’” would be far, far easier. There’s anger and sadness and mockery too, just there lingering below the surface but the transcendent spirt is what lays above it.
‘Hard Beat’ on the other hand is groin level groovy with minimalistic synths padded with lighter accents and fills. I find the groove is also blocky like a satisfyingly dark line dance. I love the punch of the bass synth and the fizz of the main keyboard swishes, less is more in my view, allusions to early eighties synth work from the likes of YAZOO or DAF jump out. The accompanying video which I saw afterwards confirms that opinion.
The video also has a spot of the MARILYN MANSONs about it. Or even FEVER RAY, dirty, Jae Mathews vocal along with the vibe being aloof and detached, sensual, dreamy and then in the moment. You as the onlooker feel included and excluded. All in all, there is an easy flow and the track is easy on the ear. The line “Let’s make it real!” is so husky...
If these two tracks are backed up by the other ten on the album, then a fine album it will be.
Tracklist
01. Jeans (Track 2 on the album)
02. Hard Beat (Track 7 on the album)
Line-up
Jae Mathews - Vocals and Lyrics
August Muller - Producer, Synths, Sequencers and Drum Machines
Website
https://boyharsher.com/
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 8
Sound: 8
Total: 8 / 10
