Horse Lords are an American

avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

rock band from

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

. The members are Andrew Bernstein (saxophone/percussion), Max Eilbacher (bass/electronics), Owen Gardner (guitar), and Sam Haberman (drums). Their first album was released in 2012, after which the Horse Lords toured with

Matmos Matmos is an experimental electronic music duo originally from San Francisco but now residing in Baltimore. M. C. (Martin) Schmidt and Drew Daniel are the core members, but they frequently include other artists on their records and in their per ...

, Guerilla Toss, and

Guardian Alien Guardian Alien is a music project started by drummer Greg Fox. There have been many collaborators since the project's inception in 2010, and it is currently the duo of Fox and Alexandra Drewchin. Background Guardian Alien was formed in 2010 by ...

, and played festivals such as

Hopscotch Music Festival Hopscotch Music Festival is an annual three-day music festival in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. With more than 120 bands, Hopscotch is known for adventurous lineups, memorable performances, and a fan-friendly atmosphere. From ...

North by Northeast North by Northeast (or NXNE) is an annual music and arts festival held each June in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The festival's main focus is live music, but it also includes an eSports gaming tournament, comedy, a conversations series, a flea mark ...

, and Fields Fest, and released more albums. According to

Discogs Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the ...

the band "plays experimental music with elements of krautrock,

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad music genre, genre of Punk Music, punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde s ...

, Appalachian and

African African or Africans may refer to: * Anything from or pertaining to the continent of Africa: ** People who are native to Africa, descendants of natives of Africa, or individuals who trace their ancestry to indigenous inhabitants of Africa *** Ethn ...

musical traditions,

polyrhythm Polyrhythm is the simultaneous use of two or more rhythms that are not readily perceived as deriving from one another, or as simple manifestations of the same meter. The rhythmic layers may be the basis of an entire piece of music ( cross-rhyt ...

ia, arcane

tuning Tuning can refer to: Common uses * Tuning, the process of tuning a tuned amplifier or other electronic component * Musical tuning, musical systems of tuning, and the act of tuning an instrument or voice ** Guitar tunings ** Piano tuning, adjusti ...

s and electronics. The band uses the just intonation tuning system favored by avantgarde composers La Monte Young and

James Tenney James Tenney (August 10, 1934 – August 24, 2006) was an American composer and music theorist. He made significant early musical contributions to plunderphonics, sound synthesis, algorithmic composition, process music, spectral music, microto ...

, so the musicians are playing hand-modified guitars with repositioned frets, re-tuned and customized by and member OwenGardner." ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to ...

'', reviewing their 2016 album ''Interventions'', described their progress to that date with "The Baltimore band has released two albums up to this point, both of which alternate switchbacking studies in rhythm and drone with noisy, knotty studio experiments... ''Interventions'' marks a major step forward in every way: The jams are both more focused and more hypnotic, while the quality of the recordings has a newfound clarity and fullness"."

Ben Ratliff Ben Ratliff (born 1968 in New York City) is an American journalist, music critic and author. Ratliff is the son of an English mother and an American father, growing up in London and in Rockland County, New York. From 1996 to 2016, he wrote a ...

reviewed ''Interventions'' for the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', calling it "invigorating" and "daring and energetic", avowing that the Horse Lords were "borrowing sounds and techniques from Mauritanian guitar music,

free jazz Free jazz is an experimental approach to jazz improvisation that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s when musicians attempted to change or break down jazz conventions, such as regular tempos, tones, and chord changes. Musicians duri ...

, classical minimalism and other places" including being "way into hocketing... This music feels very live, shivering with energy".

Discography

Studio albums *''Horse Lords'' (2012, Ehse Records) *''Hidden Cities'' (2014, NNA Tapes) *''Interventions'' (2016, Northern Spy Records) *'' The Common Task'' (2020, Northern Spy Records) *''Comradely Objects'' (2022, RVNG Intl.) Mixtapes *''Mixtape Vol. 1'' (2012) *''Mixtape Vol. 2'' (2013) *''Mixtape Volume 3'' (2013) *''Mixtape IV'' (2017)

References

External links

Horse Lords official websiteInterview with the Horse Lords
at Tiny Mix Tapes Musical groups from Baltimore American experimental musical groups {{US-experimental-band-stub