''Desperate Living'' is the fourth studio album by
Horse the Band
Horse the Band (stylized as HORSE the band) is an American metalcore band from Lake Forest, California, who are best known for their chiptune, 8-bit video game-influenced sound combined with metalcore. Frontman Nathan Winneke once jokingly desc ...
, released October 6, 2009, through
Vagrant Records
Vagrant Records is an American record label based in California. It was founded in 1995 by Rich Egan and Jon Cohen. The label focuses on rock, but features artists in a variety of other genres including folk, soul, electronic, and pop. It is home ...
.
Overview
The album sees a departure from the band's reliance on the
Nintendocore
Nintendocore is a broadly defined style of music that most commonly fuses chiptune and video game music with hardcore punk and/or heavy metal. The genre is sometimes considered a direct subgenre of post-hardcore and a fusion genre between metal ...
sound which predominantly defined their earlier records, instead ''Desperate Living'' explores more
experimental
An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs when ...
qualities. The bass guitar's role in the music (as well as in the band itself) has been diminished slightly, with the lower registers mainly serving as counters for the guitar and keyboard melodies instead of the rhythm section role of music of their style. The album is also unique in comparison with the band's previous work in that there is considerably more synthesized bass,
orchestration
Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for an orchestra (or, more loosely, for any musical ensemble, such as a concert band) or of adapting music composed for another medium for an orchestra. Also called "instrumentation", orc ...
, and
drum programming
Programming is a form of music production and performance using electronic devices and computer software, such as sequencers and workstations or hardware synthesizers, sampler and sequencers, to generate sounds of musical instruments. These mus ...
featured.
Those who purchased the album through
iTunes
iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...
received remixes by the members of Horse the Band's favorite artists and members of the band itself under different identities.
["iTunes bonus tracks."]
''Roadrunner Records
Roadrunner Records is an American record label focused on heavy metal and hard rock bands. Founded in the Netherlands in 1980, it is now a division of Warner Music Group and is based in New York City.
History
The label was launched in 1980 in t ...
''
The album reached No. 125 at
''Billboard'' 200 chart.
[ HORSE the band albums chart performanceat ]allmusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
Jamie Stewart of the band
Xiu Xiu
Xiu Xiu ( ) is an American experimental band, formed in 2002 by singer-songwriter Jamie Stewart in San Jose, California. Currently, the line-up consists of Stewart (the only constant member since formation) and Angela Seo. The band's name co ...
appears on Horse the Band's fourth album as per request from Erik Engstrom in an AIM message he sent to Stewart.
Stewart commented on his role in the recording process, stating, "Horse the band has asked me to try to help them make a dying robot, an exploding keyboard, a dream laugh, and a melted, drastic flute of redemption. Lucky for you and for me they have the wit and creativity to turn these things into music."
Also featured on the album is classical pianist
Valentina Lisitsa
Valentina Lisitsa, ; russian: Валентина Евгеньевна Лисица, translit=Valentina Evgen'evna Lisica, ) (born 25 March 1970) is a Ukrainian-American pianist.
Lisitsa independently launched her career on social media, without ...
on the song "Rape Escape". She is featured playing "a fragment of the cadenza of
Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 2, the emotional climax and most technically demanding section of one of the most difficult pieces ever written for piano". According to Engstrom, "She plays like she is possessed by the song, like she is channeling the composer and understanding their intentions and feelings better than they understood them when they were writing the song." Engstrom was very satisfied with her inclusion on the album by also stating "Only a handful of pianists in the world could play the piece, and she embarasses (''sic'') every single one of them." It was reported that Lisitsa recorded the piano piece in her home studio and broke a string while recording it.
Horse The Band debuts "Rape Escape"
/ref>
Track listing
Desperate Living (Deluxe Edition)
# "Cloudwalker" – 4:50
# "Desperate Living" – 4:07
# "The Failure of All Things" – 4:51
# "Horse the Song" – 4:24 (featuring K-SLAX)
# "Science Police" – 3:50
# "Shapeshift" – 5:11 (featuring Jamie Stewart)
# "Between the Trees" – 3:55
# "Golden Mummy Golden Bird" – 4:46
# "Lord Gold Wand of Unyielding" – 2:32
# "Big Business" – 4:56
# "Rape Escape" – 7:12 (featuring Valentina Lisitsa
Valentina Lisitsa, ; russian: Валентина Евгеньевна Лисица, translit=Valentina Evgen'evna Lisica, ) (born 25 March 1970) is a Ukrainian-American pianist.
Lisitsa independently launched her career on social media, without ...
)
# "Arrive" – 4:10
# "Rape Escape Vs. Dmndays" – 3:23
# "Lord Gold Wand of Unyielding vs. Dan Sena" – 4:46
# "The Failure of All Things vs. Airborne Drumz" – 4:22
# "Arrive vs. Burgermover" – 4:04
# "Horse the Song Vs. Arottenbit (8 Bit Cover)" – 4:03
# "Arrive vs. :( (Love Silent Things Remix)" – 3:26
# "The Failure of All Things vs. DJ Danny Maverick" – 3:43
# "Science Police Vs. Lazrtag" – 4:12
# "Golden Mummy Golden Bird vs. Skrillex" – 6:00
# "Caps" – 1:06
Charts
Personnel
;Horse the Band
*Nathan Winneke – lead vocals
*David Isen – guitar, co-lead vocals on "Lord Gold Wand of Unyielding"
*Erik Engstrom – synthesizer, LSDJ
Chiptune, also known as chip music or 8-bit music, is a style of synthesized electronic music made using the programmable sound generator (PSG) sound chips or synthesizers in vintage arcade machines, computers and video game consoles.
The ...
, backing vocals, co-lead vocals on "Lord Gold Wand of Unyielding"
*Daniel Pouliot – drums
;Guest musicians
*Brian Grover (of Thriller) – bass guitar
*Valentina Lisitsa
Valentina Lisitsa, ; russian: Валентина Евгеньевна Лисица, translit=Valentina Evgen'evna Lisica, ) (born 25 March 1970) is a Ukrainian-American pianist.
Lisitsa independently launched her career on social media, without ...
– piano
* Jamie Stewart -vocals, sound design
Sound design is the art and practice of creating sound tracks for a variety of needs. It involves specifying, acquiring or creating auditory elements using audio production techniques and tools. It is employed in a variety of disciplines including ...
*Ed Edge – triangle
A triangle is a polygon with three Edge (geometry), edges and three Vertex (geometry), vertices. It is one of the basic shapes in geometry. A triangle with vertices ''A'', ''B'', and ''C'' is denoted \triangle ABC.
In Euclidean geometry, an ...
on "Big Business"
*Jon Karel – guest drums on "Desperate Living"
*Vernon Chatman- Conundrumming
*Gary LaChance- vocals
*Sarah Hamilton- vocals
*Mike Benitez- vocals
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Desperate Living (Album)
Horse the Band albums
2009 albums
Vagrant Records albums