Horse Lords — “Demand to Be Taken to Heaven Alive!”
When discussing the merits of Horse Lords’ work, there’s certainly an impulse to intellectualize. Their newest album, “Demand to Be Taken to Heaven Alive!” is indisputably smart. It draws its inspiration from influences as ranging as 19th century hymns, management cybernetics, Russian futurist poetry, and vintage home appliances. If you’re interested in unpacking those references in depth, there are probably a half dozen music critics who’ve already done all the scholarly labor. I, on the other hand, want to convince you to listen to the new Horse Lords album at the gym.
If you’ve already been listening to the Baltimore-founded, Berlin-based quartet, that may strike you as a bit unconventional. For those unfamiliar with their oeuvre, here’s a description from Discogs: “The band plays experimental music with elements of krautrock, post-punk, Appalachian and African musical traditions, polyrhythmia, arcane tunings and modular synthesis.” So don’t be misled: this isn’t “Eye of the Tiger.” There are no catchy pop melodies or downtuned chugs, and yet it’s intensely physical music that never fails to feel like a call to action.
This is in no small part due to the precision and propulsion of Sam Haberman’s drumming and Max Eilbacher’s bass. Horse Lords’ rhythm section is the foundation on which transformational gym routines are built. Each repeated rhythmic pattern brings you to a trance-like flow state and, on this record, they all build to cosmic transformations. At the beginning of the album, the ethereal vocals on “Eureka 378-B” collide and disperse into an urgent and insistent instrumental phrase on “Brain of the Firm.” The band is warming us up, getting the blood flowing, so to speak.
Notably, this new release is the first to feature recorded vocals. Vocalists Nina Guo and Evelyn Saylor repeat the same phrase periodically throughout the album: “We Seek a City Yet to Come.” But through vocal manipulation and fragmentation, it sounds different each time. The phrase reflects Horse Lords’ utopian search for a liberated, alternative future, and the vocals on Rotation I, II, and III serve as small, optimistic departures from the otherwise unstoppable momentum of the album. When they return at the album’s conclusion, the feeling is akin to a runner’s high.
“Before the Law” is a great example of the hypnotism of a Horse Lords groove. Its kaleidoscopic hook is punctuated by accents from Andrew Bernstein’s sax and, after many repetitions, crescendoes into the looping, finger-picked acoustic guitar pattern played by Owen Gardner at the beginning of the next song, “After the Last Sky.” I love that transition. And even though I said I wasn’t going to wax poetic about the allusions on this record, I would be remiss not to mention that “After the Last Sky” is a direct reference to a line from the poem “The Earth Is Closing On Us” by Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish. In the poem Darwish writes, “Where should we go after the last frontiers? / Where should the birds fly after the last sky?”
Fitness influencers will tell you that the key to seeing results in the gym is the mind-body connection, but Horse Lords’ propulsive rhythms remind us that there’s really no distinction between the mind and the body. Either way, you’ll be moved. (Rhea Ramakrishnan)
“Demand to be Taken to Heaven Alive!” is available on Bandcamp and elsewhere.
With vigorous vocals and resounding bass and drums from the help of their band T.A.T, nonbinary Ethiopian-Eritrean artist Father Sokka takes the world of punkrap and tailors the sound, turning the echo into their own.
Their single “C*NT AVENUE” brings a fierce grittiness to the mic through adversarial lyrics and fulminating vocals. The growling, fast-paced bass creates the foundation and sets the tone for the song.
“Get it, I get it, you don’t really get it / acting confused, still gonna spend it / singing my lyrics but don’t get my rhetoric / just looked it up, don’t mean you gon’ cuff,” Father Sokka spits. “Don’t get ahead of yourself.”
Heading to the midway point of the song, the tempo slows slightly, allowing Father Sokka to emphasize the lyrics “Open wide, vocal fry when you talk about me / don’t be shy, look in my eyes / let’s get ’bout that action,” before repeating the phrase “You ain’t ’bout that action,” as a taunt waiting for response.
Father Sokka raps until the very last second of the song, which concludes with the sound of TV static, emulating nostalgia for a time when you fell asleep watching network TV and woke up late at night to the sound of static after they had gone off the air.
Father Sokka’s earlier singles “MAMDANISTAN” which was obviously named after Mayor Zohran Mamdani, the first Muslim and South Asian mayor of New York City, and “PROMISCUOUS” an unapologetic song about Father Sokka being confident in their abilities while addressing artists within the rap sphere who do not respect rap as an art form, point toward a banging full-length that we can only hope for. Until then, Father Sokka is playing at the Depot on August 2 and will be part of SubScape, later in the month at Current Space and Le Mondo, where they previously co-hosted a punkrap showcase at Le Mondo back in May.. (Chinarose Riley)
“C*NT AVENUE” is available on Apple Music and Spotify.
Julia Set — “julia set: volume one”
I’m glad screamo is back in Baltimore. I was starting to think no one had the guts to wear their heart on their sleeve anymore. When I first caught Julia Set live at Subscape last year, they proved me wrong. On stage, every member of the band is captivating, embodying their music completely, diving into it the way one dives off a cliff into a cold lake. On “julia set: volume one,” the five-piece screamo and posthardcore band encapsulate their dynamic, crushing live performance into an equally cathartic debut release.
Imagine you’re standing on the exact border between two countries. Take a small step to your left and you’re in one country, a small step to your right and you’re in the other. In mathematics, a Julia set is like that border, but it ripples and shifts. Track that border and you’ll find remarkable fractal patterns. It’s a fitting name for a band that employs unconventional time signatures and angular, jagged rhythms that can veer suddenly from chaotic and frenzied to meditative and melodic while maintaining a taut balance. In the final throes of “three,” for example, tumultuous guitar shredding dissipates into a dissonant jewelry box ballerina melody before vocalist Alexandra (who, like the rest of the band, only uses a first name) shrieks, “I’m starting to think / it’s not my last time trying / looking for a silver lining.” Everything crashes like waves around her voice.
Alexandra, as well as guitarists Ted and Eli, drummer Spencer, and bassist Kendall have all been fixtures in the Baltimore music scene for quite some time, and, in “julia set: volume one,” shreds of the other projects they’re currently or formerly involved with (Sadness, Powerwasher, Baklavaa, to name a few) will be evident to keen listeners. Real heads will get flashbacks to ’90s SoCal posthardcore bands like Portraits of Past and Heroin. But Julia Set has a sharp set of teeth that are all its own. Only true Baltimore punks could write a song as twisted and jarring as “four,” in which strained wails and spoken word layers coil through urgent, hammering bass and drums.
Listening to the way the band transitions from “four” into “five,” it makes sense why they’ve chosen to forgo track names. The EP functions more like a continuous narrative with separate chapters, building tension to gratifying peaks and moments of reflection. I’m a sucker for a ride like that, the same way I fall head over heels for a good refrain. The finale of “six” is going to be ringing in my ears for a while: “A memory, so incomplete / a hungry heart.” (Rhea Ramakrishnan)
“julia set: volume one” releases on Bandcamp and thirdhouse.limitedrun.com on July 3. Julia Set’s EP release show is on July 10 at Holy Frijoles (908-912 W. 36th Street).