Baltimore's Horse Lords have generated a buzz of late. The experimental quartet conjure up some wild sounds, and especially so on their superbly-titled new album, Demand to Be Taken to Heaven Alive!. This is invigorating stuff, and not something that you can just put on and ignore. That's a compliment, of course.
"Brain of the Firm" surges with an attack like fragments of early King Crimson songs being played too fast, while the spry "Playing and Reality" edges into free jazz territory thanks to Andrew Bernstein's energetic sax-work. Elsewhere, "First Galactic Utopia" soars on the back of bass from Max Eilbacher. It's downright funky -- think Devo doing an instrumental cover of Steely Dan. "Before the Law" is Sun Ra-ish, with beats from Sam Haberman keeping time as the cut approaches the edges of the universe. While Bernstein wails on "After the Last Sky", there are accents from guitarist Owen Gardner peppering the cut. All four of these players find a way to bring something to these smart work-outs. By the time the title track closer rolls around, it feels like the culimnation of the riffs and hooks of all the previous cuts, the number achieving the sort of transcendent lift-off hinted at earlier on the record.
Horse Lords are closer to free jazz or even prog than they are to post-punk. What's abrasive here on Demand to Be Taken to Heaven Alive! is a sort of horn-onslaught, or a keyboard squall. Cuts grind or unspool in their own fashion, and overall a listener assumes that these four know exactly what they are doing. The effect is one where it feels like we are overhearing a quartet find their groove for the first time. Bracing, and sort of euphoric too in spots, this new Horse Lords record is recommended highly.
Demand to Be Taken to Heaven Alive! by Horse Lords is out today. Details below.
[Photo: Kasia Zacharko]