A Natural Death,
HORSE The BandIf you look up ‘acquired taste’ on Google images, there is a photo of Horse the band. They epitomize that tag for me. In my opinion, Horse the band are what you get if you cross hardcore with a Rolf Harris stylophone (those of you who are too young to remember the stylophone, look it up – you won’t be disappointed). One minute sounding like a dirtier version of Parkway Drive, the next like Alex Kidd on the Sega Master System. And if that sounds like your dream music, well, it probably is.
The thing about HtB is that they are fucking good. Whereas a lot of Nu Rave bands (and don’t think for a minute HtB can be pigeon-holed into that category easily) actually don’t have a lot of substance behind their synthesizers guitar-wise, HtB really do. At times they touch on the kind of sound that Dillinger Escape Plan got when they did their Mike Patton EP. Not quite as insane, and not quite as heavy, but heavy enough to give you a big kick up the arse. The quirkier side to them – claiming to be from the future and yet playing with 1980s toys to make sounds in their songs – this just adds to the charm.
My criticism is this album goes on for a bit tooooo long – this kind of music needs to come in and leave before you are ready, and at 55 minutes HtB don’t do that here, but this aside, this is a fine album. Would fill a hole in any varied collection I’d say – provided this kind of thing floats your boat.
Mike
