The Quietus on Locrian/Horseback 7"

Link here.
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"We at the Quietus (well, me, as far as I know) love a bit of Locrian – mostly due to the fact that the Chicago drone outfit have produced some stunning slabs of disorientating, glitch filled noise, meant to ruin your speaker cones and your relationship with your neighbours due to it causing their cat to turn itself inside out. Here, with only one side of a 7" to fill, the creeping grandeur of The Crystal World is replaced by the sort of noises that Sunn O))) banished to the bottom of the Mariana trench lest anybody be foolish enough to attempt to plunder them. Over on the other side, North Carolina's Horseback have deposited the musical equivalent of that brief second of panic when you're caught in a wave and you think you're going to drown and a bit of piss comes out. Except it goes on for five odd minutes and is accompanied by what sounds like Alan Dubin straining for a shit in your ears. Not for everyone then. See you at Bloodstock, ya bastards!"

Locrian/Horseback 7" Reviewed at Brainwashed

Link here. The LOD Store will have these 7"s back in stock later this week.

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As my reviews of both of these projects over the past few years surely indicates, these are two of my favorite artists working in the post-post metal field, approaching the genre from a conceptual, almost academic mindset rather than a traditionalist one. It was perfectly logical for them to work together, and this 7" makes for a tantalizing teaser for their upcoming collaborative EP.

Turgid Animal

Locrian has, to me, always been more about the examination of metal in all its facets: rather than working with headbanging riffs or pounding drums, their work has been a careful deconstruction, focusing on the subtle melodies and ambiences that are so often obscured within the genre. "In The Absence of Light" at first feels like their earliest work: a deep, submarine guitar chug from Andre Foisy that has a more simplistic, drone type quality to it. That is until Terence Hannum’s synths come in, a soft, almost ambient series of meditative notes that clashes with the grinding chaos. Once the echoing, monastic vocals arrive, the whole song takes on a liturgical quality, simultaneously pious and blasphemous, and coming together beautifully.

Jenks Miller's Horseback project, on the flip side, is a bit different than what I had expected to hear. Horseback is usually all about the riff: slow, pounding guitar passages that become hypnotic in their repetition. On "Oblivion Eaters," however, he’s dabbling in layered, rapid arpeggios and what sounds like expansive keyboards buried deep under them. The varying layers synthesize into an almost melodic underpinning with dense clusters of guitar noise blasting away. Miller’s vocals are once again heavily treated and effected to become another instrument in the dense mix.

The two sides compliment each other nicely, shaping the traditional signifiers of heavy metal into distinct, but consistent compositions. Considering this is the work of the two projects independent of one another, I have high hopes for the upcoming New Dominions collaboration of the two.

Locrian/Horseback 7" (Turgid Animal)

Locrian/Horseback 7" available now at:

http://www.landofdecay.bigcartel.com


If you live in Europe, then check Turgid Animal since we're sure that they'll have a cheaper price.

Records will be shipped during the week of Monday, April 18th, 2011.

Artist: Locrian & Horseback
Edition Size: 300
Artwork: Scott Treleaven
Label: Turgid Animal

Side A: Horseback - Oblivion Eaters

Side B: Locrian - In the Absence of Light

The Locrian track was recorded in fall 2010, just a few months before "The Crystal World" was recorded. "In the Absence of Light" was recorded during the same session as "This is the Final Epoch" (the bonus track from the tape version of "Drenched Lands").

Congratulations to our friend Jenks (Horseback)!

Looks like Jenks will be working with Relapse on his next album.

We expect the Locrian/Horseback 7" (Turgid Animal) to be out before long...

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HORSEBACK Sign To Relapse Records --- 3/31/2010

Relapse Records is proud to announce the signing of North Carolina’s HORSEBACK.

HORSEBACK, the brainchild of Jenks Miller, has released two full-length albums since forming in 2007. The band’s second full-length, The Invisible Mountain, will be re-released through Relapse later this summer. Audio samples from The Invisible Mountain and more can be heard online now via the HORSEBACK MySpace: MySpace.com/HorsebackNoise.

Miller commented on the signing; "Horseback is an ever-evolving project which will explore a variety of sounds and approaches in its lifetime. I am glad to have the opportunity to work with Relapse, and have long admired their commitment to new and challenging music."

HORSEBACK is currently writing for the follow-up album to The Invisible Mountain, a companion album that is tentatively titled Half Blood. Additional details on this release will be announced soon.

HORSEBACK will take part in the Hopscotch Festival in Raleigh, NC this September. The Hopscotch Festival is presented by Raleigh’s Independent Weekly and this year’s fest will also include PUBLIC ENEMY, PANDA BEAR, LUCERO, HARVEY MILK, OCEAN, and many more. Additional information on the festival can be found here.