Horse Lords

Horse Lords hurtle the listener into geometric space. Their albums tumble the collective conciseness into an Escher-like arrangement that’s disorienting, yet ordered. There’s a tessellation to their playing that spirals out in all directions, surrounding the listener in a sonic whirlpool that hits like a force of nature. Like a roller-coaster, though, the chaos always feels in complete control. The g-force riffs and hairpin turns feel like the work of aural engineers, scientists at work with amps and sticks in place of pristine lab equipment. Out of the minimalist maelstrom we’re washed clean; rock-tumbled and turned loose to try to walk again after adjusting to the sea legs of their rhythmic sway.

The band’s latest tightens the screws on their last few albums. There’s still a sense of free jazz chaos at the corners, but Demand To Be Taken To Heaven Alive is less lacerated by the skronk and scorch of sax than it is caressed by the uncanny valley of processed vocals and the Autobahn insistence of the German Progressive path. The groove on the new album feels embedded, omnipresent, inescapable. Veer all you want and the band will bump you back into their marble run head rush once more, plunging all the senses in loops and swoops that pull like black holes of rhythm. The Lords break out of the electric insistence in a few places, letting acoustic repetition lead “After The Last Sky” and allowing a triptych of acapela choirs course through the album as a tying theme. The choral voices start to become integrated into the works as the record progresses, merging the circuit board citadel they’ve created with their clockwork spine in ways that draw as much from aughts beat makers like Prefuse 73 as they do Cluster and Kraftwerk. It’s an evolutionary album for the band, a hybrid that’s mutating with each note.