Live Review: Sugar Horse at The Black Heart, London (18/04/26)

Was this a sell-out show? There was a point where I looked behind (I was right at the front) and I swear it was packed right to the back. Even if it wasn’t, it was incredibly heartening to see so many people in London turning out to see Sugar Horse do their thing. Their weird, noisy, loud, and hypnotic thing. For around 45 minutes, the eclectic group delivered an unforgettable showcase of inventive eccentricities that showed just how strong their new album is.

Released on April 10th (Fat Dracula Records), ‘Not A Sound in Heaven’, is special, but it’s also an album that needs time. Sugar Horse delight in being indefinable, and this new album continues that trend. In my review, I said that I thought that it was:

An album with one eye on the live side of things, and on stage it could really come to life. Noise is designed to be experienced in the flesh!

I feel a bit vindicated having now heard a sizeable portion of the album live and in a venue that always delivers on ‘loud noise’. Which does mean some of the intricate detail is lost, but not as much as expected. In fact, I found myself thoroughly pleased by the sound in the venue.

This was my sixth time seeing them play and it was as hypnotic as the first, especially as their catalogue is so strong, I think they could have played for triple the time, and still not hit all my favourites. What they lack in showmanship, being a band who comes out, plays, and leaves with very few words being spoken, they make up for with their music and how tightly they perform it.

The new stuff sounds great and Fire Graphics could be an opener for many years to come, so potent is the crashing drums and distorted guitars. The latter aggressive use of electronica is also so much more intense in the live environment. It’s far from my favourite track from the new album, but I’m definitely warmer to it than I was. Whereas Secret Speech and Ex‐Human Shield are tracks I already rate so highly, given a whole new vibe when performed live. The latter’s choral sections aren’t quite as clean as they are on record, but the grittiness ends up working so well.

Would You Like Me to Be the Cat? is fast becoming one of my all-time favourite Sugar Horse songs, which should speak volumes to anyone who knows me and how much I f**king love Phil Spector in Hell. Hearing it live was one of the best moments of the entire show and up there as one of the best live moments of the year. Equally, I absolutely loved how vibrant History’s Biggest T‐Shirts sounded, and having the show rounded off with a Sugar Horse ‘classic’ in Shouting Judas at Bob Dylan was the cherry on top.

It’s never enough, but I never come away disappointed. Until next time.