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| Track list: 1. You Burn 2. Faith 3. Ascension 4. Denial 5. Berceuse 6. Medicine Brush 7. Disclosure 8. Weigh True Words 9. Heart to Know Running time: 45 minutes Released: 2014 |
I loved I Break Horses' first effort, Hearts, a lot, having been turned on to them by the festival listings for Latitude the one year I went. I forget the dates, but I didn't get to see them play in the end because it was so muddy, and the particular venue up a hill in the woods that the effort involved led me down a different path. Nevertheless, I bought that album, loved it, played it a lot and was excited when this was released but Chiaroscuro never grabbed me in the same way.
There is a throbbing about the opening, a pulse invoked by the combination of rhythm and repeated note. The modulated sound of keys is a contrast, and the voice that comes in is different again, untethered compared to the other sounds. The pace is slow, it is a tone piece not an energy one. As the song grows there is a bit more life injected into the beats but this is introspective fare; there's nowt wrong with that. This post is - as most seem to be these days - overdue. Too much distraction, too little planning, too much tiredness, too little drive. I am not in the best of spaces, yet... everything is kinda alright. The first track isn't finished yet and I am simultaneously angry at myself for not getting to this sooner (it's a pause of an opening, a rest), and wishing it were done already. Oh, if things could be easy... they'd all be duller.
Faith is a cyberpunk-y electronic haze, tempo jacked and levels all... wrong? The rhythm drives it the right way but the emphasis is on the background. Like the wallflower trying to hide in plain sight at the back of the photo - you can't tear your eyes from the one person that didn't want to be there. I suppose this is apt for a band characterised with the horrendously acerbic "shoegaze" label. This is one of the worst music genre labels of them all and there are plenty of bad names floating around. It is dismissive, fundamentally - even if used in adoration. Introspection is no bad thing; wanting to create a more private or intimate experience is no bad thing. If all music was unabashedly extrovert there would be less interesting material out there, material for fewer people.
I rather like the sense of break this manages to create, even when the soundscapes are pretty busy - buzzes, pulses, beeps everywhere. It still lacks the immediacy, the personality, of Hearts but it has positioned itself so as to break up the monotony of a Monday night where plans fell through. The weird effects at the beginning of Denial are unwelcome - a nasty little insertion before a more tuneful piece takes over. It sounds like an 80s film soundtrack redone with modern sensibilities - a little more craft and self awareness, a lot less flash and celebrity. Not a bad switch up. I am less than 4 songs in, none of them over 5 minutes but it feels like I have been listening for a lot longer than that. I think this is down to them packing a lot into each tune. So many different sounds, layers, that can only really be achieved through embracing electronica.
I am seriously out of practice at these posts. My mind is racing now - fighting for things to type, but that is not helpful. Inside I am going a million miles an hour; the soundtrack is a succession of slow numbers, at odds with that. I am creating my own mental prison, a sense of entrapment, containment that is standing between me and the music. The opposite of the point.
Ironically I end up gazing at my slippers as I try to force my head to clear and my attention to the ethereal sounds. I feel bad for this.
A couple of brief and soon forgotten aural discomforts aside this has been... alright. There are some really nice sounds buried in there too. However much of it is just not grabbing me and I am left wondering if they haven't tried to take introspection too far. Oh, just as I finish that thought the music gets a little more life, a little more volume. That is an element that has been largely missing. Everything is soft, muted, and distant. Some more dominant elements are welcome. Unfortunately the piece then settles too easily into a repeating pattern and does not really use the sense of difference that was briefly there after the first strong notes hit my ears. It rather drifts then dies out - some minutes later - with my sudden enthusiasm well and truly bled away.
There is more promise in the opening of Disclosure though. A snap to the rhythm, a pointedness. A purpose. It grows its sound a bit, but I can't help but feel it grows in the wrong way and loses some of the immediacy that I found in the opening bars. I think this would be best with headphones, late night, out in the middle of nowhere with a big sky open above you. It has that sensation of staring off into space, of vastness and insignificance. Some of the relevance comes back as the piece progresses; it may be the best track since the opener.
I would have to go back and listen to Hearts to be sure of this but I think there is a fundamental difference between these albums. The first is introspection aimed at a small space; this feels like it is broadcast out into an expanse by contrast. Wide open spaces filled with very personal sounds, rather than speaking directly to an audience. Perhaps that is why this works less than brilliantly. The final track is 7 and a half minutes long and... oh my god is it sleepy. It's so laid back as to be horizontal. It is, also, incredibly dull. Long, slow pieces have a place, but they need to have a little more to them than this. Droning low notes, a repetitive vocal and none of the busy sound work from earlier tracks. This is a soul-sucking morass of a last track, bleeding off any good will.
Any positive impression I built over the first couple of tracks is definitely gone now. A surprising little injection of actual sound into this snooze-fest feels out of place - moreso because it is not followed up on. What a terrible end to a record that really wasn't that bad. Yes, it is lacking in places, and yes it suffers a lot in comparison with their prior effort, but it had its moments. Those are rather obliterated by the dirge with which it leaves us though. A pity about that.
Edit: I started Hearts out of curiosity. It's still electronic, ethereal, introspective but it's also bolder about it. Louder, more vibrant, with more personality and, importantly, still really good.
There is a throbbing about the opening, a pulse invoked by the combination of rhythm and repeated note. The modulated sound of keys is a contrast, and the voice that comes in is different again, untethered compared to the other sounds. The pace is slow, it is a tone piece not an energy one. As the song grows there is a bit more life injected into the beats but this is introspective fare; there's nowt wrong with that. This post is - as most seem to be these days - overdue. Too much distraction, too little planning, too much tiredness, too little drive. I am not in the best of spaces, yet... everything is kinda alright. The first track isn't finished yet and I am simultaneously angry at myself for not getting to this sooner (it's a pause of an opening, a rest), and wishing it were done already. Oh, if things could be easy... they'd all be duller.
Faith is a cyberpunk-y electronic haze, tempo jacked and levels all... wrong? The rhythm drives it the right way but the emphasis is on the background. Like the wallflower trying to hide in plain sight at the back of the photo - you can't tear your eyes from the one person that didn't want to be there. I suppose this is apt for a band characterised with the horrendously acerbic "shoegaze" label. This is one of the worst music genre labels of them all and there are plenty of bad names floating around. It is dismissive, fundamentally - even if used in adoration. Introspection is no bad thing; wanting to create a more private or intimate experience is no bad thing. If all music was unabashedly extrovert there would be less interesting material out there, material for fewer people.
I rather like the sense of break this manages to create, even when the soundscapes are pretty busy - buzzes, pulses, beeps everywhere. It still lacks the immediacy, the personality, of Hearts but it has positioned itself so as to break up the monotony of a Monday night where plans fell through. The weird effects at the beginning of Denial are unwelcome - a nasty little insertion before a more tuneful piece takes over. It sounds like an 80s film soundtrack redone with modern sensibilities - a little more craft and self awareness, a lot less flash and celebrity. Not a bad switch up. I am less than 4 songs in, none of them over 5 minutes but it feels like I have been listening for a lot longer than that. I think this is down to them packing a lot into each tune. So many different sounds, layers, that can only really be achieved through embracing electronica.
I am seriously out of practice at these posts. My mind is racing now - fighting for things to type, but that is not helpful. Inside I am going a million miles an hour; the soundtrack is a succession of slow numbers, at odds with that. I am creating my own mental prison, a sense of entrapment, containment that is standing between me and the music. The opposite of the point.
Ironically I end up gazing at my slippers as I try to force my head to clear and my attention to the ethereal sounds. I feel bad for this.
A couple of brief and soon forgotten aural discomforts aside this has been... alright. There are some really nice sounds buried in there too. However much of it is just not grabbing me and I am left wondering if they haven't tried to take introspection too far. Oh, just as I finish that thought the music gets a little more life, a little more volume. That is an element that has been largely missing. Everything is soft, muted, and distant. Some more dominant elements are welcome. Unfortunately the piece then settles too easily into a repeating pattern and does not really use the sense of difference that was briefly there after the first strong notes hit my ears. It rather drifts then dies out - some minutes later - with my sudden enthusiasm well and truly bled away.
There is more promise in the opening of Disclosure though. A snap to the rhythm, a pointedness. A purpose. It grows its sound a bit, but I can't help but feel it grows in the wrong way and loses some of the immediacy that I found in the opening bars. I think this would be best with headphones, late night, out in the middle of nowhere with a big sky open above you. It has that sensation of staring off into space, of vastness and insignificance. Some of the relevance comes back as the piece progresses; it may be the best track since the opener.
I would have to go back and listen to Hearts to be sure of this but I think there is a fundamental difference between these albums. The first is introspection aimed at a small space; this feels like it is broadcast out into an expanse by contrast. Wide open spaces filled with very personal sounds, rather than speaking directly to an audience. Perhaps that is why this works less than brilliantly. The final track is 7 and a half minutes long and... oh my god is it sleepy. It's so laid back as to be horizontal. It is, also, incredibly dull. Long, slow pieces have a place, but they need to have a little more to them than this. Droning low notes, a repetitive vocal and none of the busy sound work from earlier tracks. This is a soul-sucking morass of a last track, bleeding off any good will.
Any positive impression I built over the first couple of tracks is definitely gone now. A surprising little injection of actual sound into this snooze-fest feels out of place - moreso because it is not followed up on. What a terrible end to a record that really wasn't that bad. Yes, it is lacking in places, and yes it suffers a lot in comparison with their prior effort, but it had its moments. Those are rather obliterated by the dirge with which it leaves us though. A pity about that.
Edit: I started Hearts out of curiosity. It's still electronic, ethereal, introspective but it's also bolder about it. Louder, more vibrant, with more personality and, importantly, still really good.
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