Whyte Horses

Dom Thomas, a co-founder of the reissue imprint Finders Keepers, channels an eclectic range of sounds through his group Whyte Horses. Psychedelia, library music, acid folk, Krautrock, tropicália, yé-yé, and lounge supplied the ingredients that the self-described music-chronologist blended with contributions from vocalists such as La Roux and Lispector, resulting in two albums of accessible, hypnotic, dreamy psych-pop alongside vividly staged concerts.

The outfit’s inaugural outing arrived as the single Snowfalls, issued by the London label CRC in October 2014. Their first proper album, Pop or Not, followed in May 2016 after a limited private pressing the year before. Anglo-French singer Julie Margat, recording as Lispector, supplied Gallic cool to the sessions, while further support came from the Doves’ Jez Williams, Ian Parton of the Go! Team, Belle and Sebastian’s Chris Geddes, and independent psych figure Jim Noir. Noel Gallagher and NME both praised the record, and Piccadilly Records, the band’s local shop, named it Album of the Year. Before 2016 ended, Whyte Horses re-cut the entire set with the St. Bartholomew’s School Choir replacing the original singers and released the new version as Pop or Not: The Music of Whyte Horses.

In 2017 the group made its London concert debut at the Barbican under the banner of the Whyte Horses Experience, welcoming La Roux, Badly Drawn Boy, the St. Bart’s Choir, and Go! Team members as guests. When work began on the follow-up, Thomas recruited Audrey Pic, formerly of the Envelopes, as principal vocalist and also brought in Elly Jackson of La Roux, Nouvelle Vague’s Melanie Pain, and the Soundcarriers’ Leonore Wheatley. The resulting 2018 album Empty Words offered a somewhat tempered and more varied reading of the bright pop that had defined the debut. Subsequent live appearances retained the element of surprise and theatricality established at the Barbican.

The next project took the form of a “fantasy mixtape” in which the band interpreted both well-known and little-heard songs, aided by Traceyanne Campbell, Gruff Rhys, La Roux, and Chrysta Bell. Titled Hard Times after the Baby Huey number performed here by John Grant, the collection appeared on CRC Music in early 2020.