An Album Review: I Break Horses "Hearts"

I admit that the regularity of my writing has somewhat plummeted in these last few weeks. I blame it on the fact that I like a good party from time to time, so celebrated my 21^st in identical fashion. Besides the obvious showering of birthday presents, cake and alcohol, one of the best things about it being your birthday is that you have complete control of what music gets blasted through the speakers. All night long and into the early hours. As the Churchill Bulldog says, "Ohhhh yes!".

Now, I’m a very calm person (most of the time). I can’t help it if I enjoy down-tempo songs with chilled beats and sexy vibes. I have a little bit of a tendency to favour more somber tracks, so thought it would be in the best interest of everyone to perhaps find something new, loud and delightfully upbeat.

I Break Horses are a Stockholm-born duo formed in 2008 consisting of Maria Lindén and Fredrik Balck. Their newly released 2011 album Hearts was decidedly going to be the music I would be sipping birthday Cava to. This album is a pretty decent pay off, as I’m a rather big fan of the shoegaze and dreampop genres that I Break Horses greatly incorporates while merging these influences with favorable buoyancy, making Hearts feel distinctively indie at times.

I Break Horses focus greatly on dreampop vibes and electronic synths, ultimately leaving me with the impression that multiple layers and generous use of texturing seem to be the key to malevolent ethereal brilliance in mainstream shoegaze. There’s a strange, but enchanting mixture of artistic influences to their sound, stemming from the more obvious angelic characteristics of M83, Animal Collective, Beach House and many other contemporary shoegaze music groups to a more traditional indie-rock feel through their unique embodiment of occasional guitar riff simplicity. The aural combination of these polar opposites feel natural and composed with ease, while an upbeat kick of imperturbable subtlety merges together their contrasting sounds.

           

The first thing that I noticed after the initial wall of airy electronic immersion was the startling, uncanny resemblance that the vocals share with Brian Aubert of the Silversun Pickups. It’s an unexpected comparison and a boldly made one nonetheless, but if you take a listen to Wired (3^rd track off Hearts) you’ll hear what I mean. It’s definitely safe to say that the delicate, airy voices that sing above treble-pitched drones and distorted electronic experimentation are a growing trend and nearly iconic within the current ambient-incorporated music scene.

Looking into this album a bit closer, there’s a distinct sameness with the dynamic levels of intensity that can be heard, positively maintaining the degree of musical power that this album possesses. I Kill Your Love, Baby and Load Your Eyes feel a bit more down-tempo, but both still retaining the same reverberated tones that are adjacent throughout the course of the whole album. Like many dreampop/shoegaze artists, there is a strong experimentation with sounds and effects, through suggestive use of stylophone and harpsichords in particular, ultimately conserving a sumptuous feeling of texture to their tracks.

Despite subtle dynamical difference between tracks, the Swedish duo create many moods throughout Hearts, exploring contrasts of fast and slow paces, while long synthesized notes feel sublime and powered beneath the moving wheels of simplistic guitar riffs, and muffled cathedral-echoed voices that slide in parallel above.

Although first impressions do count, the opening two songs off this album felt a bit anti-climatic through their repetitive use of the same guitar riffs, but after more time spent listening I’ve come to acknowledge how perfectly hand in hand they come in regards to their chronological status. Wired however, was the first tune to fully stand out to me, with it’s catchy melody and vocal style that reminded me of drone-concentrated bands such as Joy Division and the Crystal Stilts.

All in all, there’s a lot to take in with this album, and I highly recommend listening to this a few times before coming to a final, optimal conclusion. Every track seems to be filled with styles that differentiate from one another, as if each is an individually recognized love child born out of the adulterous relationship I Break Horses variously share with it's many celebrated influences. I can’t even stress how beautifully incorporated these artistic musical styles are recycled in Hearts.

For those who fancy a taster of this album and ultimately this wonderful band, explore the tracks below.

I Break Horses- Hearts by Bella Union