Red Horse - Side B (untitled)
Red Horse is a band that has gained a mysterious cult appeal, at least in the Boston area. The duo of Eli Keszler and Steve Pyne rarely do live performances and they've been around for years before they finally released their self titled debut just a few months ago. There have been plenty of people (not so) patiently waiting this record. Well, if you had any expectations of this album, I assure you now that they have been surpassed. Red Horse is brilliant.
Half of the fun of listening to this is figuring out wtf the sounds are coming from. Pyne is a regular DIY engineer, crafting "massive hand-constructed string instruments, motor-automated resonances, homespun multi-layered Leslies, speaker arrays and sculptural electronics." And then Keszler's got his bowed percussion and drumming the shit out of anything within arm's reach. So before you hear any of the music, Red Horse already has an appealing aesthetic behind it.
But the music is so much more than novelty, which could easily be the case with whacked out home made instruments. Red Horse walk the delicate line of nonsense noise and the freest jazz your brain can imagine. There is a cohesive form that works it's way into the skittery droning realm that Keszler & Pyne have firmly planted themselves in. They take the dabbling of your regular basement freak's CD-Rs and BAM take it up a few dozen notches.
Red Horse is so much more than I ever could have hoped to have on a Red Horse record. Listening to Keszler go all spazzlike with his drumming that sounds like the endless rain of Kerplunk marbles is pure heaven. And I can only assume that it's Pyne who's throwing down that positively disturbing drone.
The two of these guys are like fucking heroes. Anyone who has any dreams of making avant garde/experimental/noise/ear fuckkking music should start taking notes. And start practicing. 'Cause Red Horse have brought the fucking thunder.
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