CD Review: The Mekons’ HORROR/HORRORble (mekons Vs. Tony Maimone In Dub Conference) (2026)

British rockers mekons released a new album in 2025, the stand-out HORROR tragically-overlooked by all but the most hardcore of mekons fans. I gotta admit that I gave it a spin and shelved it because, with so much sound & fury in the world, it’s hard to recognize true beauty when you hear it. Luckily for we hopelessly unworthy droogs, the band is reissuing HORROR as the bonus disc of an adventuresome two-CD package along with a brand new LP, HORRORble. Comprised of Dub remixes by Pere Ubu’s Tony Maimone, HORRORble will warp your little mind, and the whole shebang will be available on CD, vinyl, and digital format to fit every budget just in time for the mekons’ 13-date tour of the U.S.

The Mekons’ HORROR/HORRORble (mekons Vs. Tony Maimone In Dub Conference) 

 
HORROR stands tall entirely on its own, a prescient and present collection of socially-conscious songs glittered-up with the band’s typical folk, rock, and country garnish. Lyrically, mekons mainstay Jon Langford has never been better in describing our current nightmare with songs like the lilting waltz “Sad and Sad and Sad,” the guitar-driven Celtic-folk of “Glasgow,” the historical lament “Mudcrawlers,” an uncompromising rocker with dense, clashing instrumentation, or the Burroughs/Ginsberg influenced beat poesy of “War Economy,” a punky new wave musical jaunt with fractured instrumentation and snarling vocals.    

Maimone had his work cut out for him in reimagining the band’s material for HORRORble, but acquits himself well from the first gorgeous note of “Before the Ice Age,” the production gimcrackery riding low in the saddle beneath the song’s haunting vocals (courtesy of Sally Tims) and ethereal soundtrack. The aforementioned “Sad and Sad and Sad” takes on new dimensions with a swirling rhythmic backdrop while “War Economy” is afforded a more traditional Jamaican Dub production that does nothing to rob the lyrics of their power by cleverly hiding them in a mix that would make King Tubby happy. 

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

Every one of Maimone’s productions on HORRORble are a trip – I particularly like the lysergic whimsical ambiance of “Sanctuary” and the shoegaze reverberations of “Fallen Leaves” – but his rockin’ remake of “Mudcrawlers” with U.K. vocalist Benjii Webbe (of the reggae-metal outfit Skindred) brings a sense of urgency and idealism to an already edgy tune, the performance a unique hybrid of Billy Bragg and Bob Vylan. If you weren’t paying attention when HORROR hit the shelves, maybe it’s time to rediscover the erudite and esoteric charms of the mekons with this budget-priced double-dose of one of the more criminally-overlooked bands in rock music. (Fire Records, released June 5th, 2026) 

Buy the CD from Amazon: The Mekons’ HORROR/HORRORble