Labels: self released
Review by: C. Kuzmiski
Press releases are funny, funny things. Horse Party’s is no exception. Filled with the usual “band sounds like no-one else” and of course “twin guitar/vocal attack”. It’s quite charming in its predictability. The copy claims they are “impossible to categorise’. You could say that, or you could say: the disgruntled Fleetwood Mac at the rock revival “” who like Mazzy Star. Which isn’t impossible to categorise.
It’s a ballsy move releasing a live EP so early on. As a coup it actually works very well. The audio comes out pleasingly unpolished, in a way that sounds as exciting, as 2014 “indie’ production doesn’t. As an advertising gimmick it also works as, I kind of want to go and see them now.
Opener “Back to Mono’ (is that a mission statement, should we regress that far, where does lo-fi stop?) is all stamping and immediate and distorted in a way that you hope they don’t lighten up anytime soon. “Scarlet & Blue’ channels the bands most accurate 90s 4AD worship. It really couldn’t sound anymore like that; hesitant guitars, stark dynamics and “twin vocal attack’. They slightly let themselves down with some guitar shop blues on final track “Six’. Remember kids, no one actually likes the blues, no one that can’t play guitar anyway.
Unfortunately, Horse Party are bound to be considered to have missed-the-boat of the NME Americana rawk boom of yesteryear. Who gives a fuck about that though? They are good enough to amass a fanbase of people who actually like them for being an interesting rock band, and there aren’t many of them about.