HORSE LORDS are back, not that they ever went away, it’s just, I mean… WHAT I AM TRYING TO SAY is that they have a new record coming out! And it is being released by that stunner of a Vermont label NNA TAPES. HORSE LORDS too are a stunner, a Baltimore stunner, playing some of the most innovative and inventive syncopated groove filled music that you will be able to find (even if you look extremely hard, and are meticulous in every phase of your search).
HIDDEN CITIES will officially be HORSE LORDS second LP once it is released by NNA on November 4th. Quite a pairing this label, this band. I must agree with the whole idea. The album boasts an effervescent cross section of experimental & underground musical ideas: post-punk, krautrock, various world musics (especially at times West African guitar group sounds), funk, and various strains of acoustic and electronic experimental music are all present and oozing from the HORSE LORDS wall of sound. That last bit comes courtesy of Max Eilbacher, who put out that great solo record on SPECTRUM SPOOLS last year (perhaps you caught him playing when we had him up in August @ SCANNERS?).
“Outer East” is offered up for consumption here. One of the 5 tracks from HIDDEN CITIES, it boasts a length of a shade under 13 minutes, and (I’m not sure how to quantify this exactly) those 13 minutes may be 13 of the most quickly passing minutes in the history of man, time or space. I’ll have to consult my Guinness Book on that. I’ll get back to you. Really though, the undulating cacophonous funk of this track triggers a warp speed of some kind in my mind: I go from starting to listen, getting into that poly-rhythmic groove and then WHAM! What just happened? I feel delighted but something inside my skull aches real bad. I suppose the only way to fully understand the depth and magic of this music is to hit play again… it is a vicious cycle. I myself was caught in it for quite some time. Thankfully, I have people who love me and they came looking for me (thanks Meg), and found me happy, and grooving, but STUCK. I can’t say it won’t happen to me again. I implore you to listen, but be careful as you do.
HORSE LORDS play BOSTON HASSLE FEST 6 in November. The band plays on saturday 11/8. I couldn’t be more excited!!
