The House of Harley

This is the online home of Harley R, an artist, musician and writer based in London, England.

Art and Comics

I draw prolifically (mainly pictures of people) and my sketches of Londoners will be available on this site. A series of older Sketchbooks can be found on www.houseofharley.co.uk. Several portraits of the singer Mark E Smith were exhibited at the Praxis Hagen gallery in Berlin in May 2006, as part of a tribute to his band The Fall.

My more fantastical drawings have seen print in publications such as The Sound Projector. For a brief but intense period in my late teens, I was involved in the English small press comics scene: writing and drawing comic strips; helping out on the Fast Fiction stand at London comic markets; and publishing the anthology Ugly Mug (copies available shortly through this site). Will I draw comics again? Only time will tell.

Music

I am member of ‘barely existing’ bands Mystery Dick and Pestrepeller (both formed in the mid-1990s), who have released several albums and play live rarely but explosively.

Mystery Dick is a duo of myself and Ed Pinsent. We specialise in edgy improvised drones such as ‘One Note Mind’. Our masterpiece, ‘Single Angel’ (recorded with heavenly vocals provided by the Chelsea Madrigal Group), spent two fruitless years on the release list of a certain UK record company, and is as yet unreleased.

Pestrepeller is a trio with Ed Pinsent (again) and renowned artist Savage Pencil, sometimes expanding to include various talented collaborators. Pestrepeller’s music tends to be more detailed and unpredictable than Mystery Dick’s, but offers a similar power and organic beauty. Our best known work is ‘Isle of Dark Magic’, released 2006 on Important Records to much acclaim.

You can find out more about Mystery Dick and Pestrepeller and buy our records at www.mysterydick.com.

I have also appeared on tracks by North London band The Original Beekeepers. In 1998 I tried and failed to join The Fall.

I am occasional fill-in presenter on The Sound Projecting radio show on Resonance 104.4 FM, and have presented surveys of piano music, obscure rock’n'roll, Popol Vuh, The Residents, and The Fall, amongst others.

Writing

I write occasionally for The Sound Projector, a music magazine whose motto is ‘better listening through imagination’. It takes an unpretentious and populist approach to music that is often perceived to be ‘difficult’. I’ve covered topics such as the singer/songwriter Daniel Johnston, Brian Wilson’s Smile, the Blue Oyster Cult, the Church of Euthanasia, and modern chart music.