Ambientaciones – DEAD HORSE ONE: Season of Mist (Requiem por un Twister, 2017)

Los parisinos DEAD HORSE ONE continúan ofreciéndonos gloriosas píldoras de ambientación Shoegazer, bien desde la faceta más visible -e incluso bailable- (Season of mist, Today) o desde la más ambiental (Insight, Mesmerize Me, Mantis…). Su cruce sin estridencias entre Ride–Brian Jonestown Massacre-Telescopes es más que disfrutable.

“Opening track “Insight” is truly stunning, and I really dig the somewhat warped sounding keyboard that starts it off. It morphs quickly into a full blown psych stomp with gauzy textures, the perfect synthesis between shoegaze and psychedelia. And before I expound further, let me state for the record that I have always considered shoegaze to be a sub-genre of psych, so the two fit together neatly. The vocals are wonderful here too, as are the guitars soaring into the stratosphere. Wonderful opening track!
“Season of Mist” is equally gorgeous, and it reminds me the most of A Storm in Heaven era Verve. Especially with the curls of feedback surrounding the entire mix. If ever a song deserved to be a hit, it’s this one.  Just amazing! “Mesmerise Me” is a graceful and sublimely trippy slice of decadent psych, and is truly swoonworthy. You will find yourself floating on golden clouds, raised up by the grandeur of this music.  The guitar work by Olivier Debard is fantastic here, but that is the case throughout the record.
“Disconnected” starts off with warm burbling synth and cooing male/female vocals. It is tranquil and easy to lose yourself in, and while it stretches out to five minutes and has lighter textures, it features some stellar guitar. “Today” shifts gears, slowing down and mixing some interesting vocal layers in with a haunting synth line. It reminds me of Ride’s quieter moments, and I like the way the song dials it back to basic instruments before ramping up the energy. “Mantis” is a slight bow to Swervedriver, mostly in the pile-driving guitar and bass, the faster pace, and the frenetic energy swirling about. Then, in mid-song, the band veers off on another track and it’s like a second song was tacked on.
“Sharon” is densely packed with walls of towering feedback that part slightly to let in light swirls of organ and delicate vocals. Very pretty! “It’s Been Awhile” is another nod to Adam Franklin and company, right down to the ethereal vocals wafting through the heavy buzz of guitars. Great! “Sons of God” has symphonic swoops that remind me of that Verve hit that shall not be named, only it’s way better than that. I especially dig the vocals, and the way the wonderfully rendered guitar curls around and between. 
“Forget About Jesus” is not the most obvious song to end the album, but it encompasses everything I like about this group. The synth lines are skewed and cool, and the guitars crunch sweetly in the right spots. In short, this is a great record from this talented French group, and is a release well worth picking up for shoegaze and psych fans of every stripe” (When the Sun Hits)

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Jet Black & Dead Horse One – Split Single (2016)

Contundente sencillo compartido a pachas entre dos bandas con ciertos rasgos en común: algo más tendentes al Neo-Grunge la primera y un sonido más próximo al Neo-Psych la segunda. La cassette es absolutamente epatante.

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Dead Horse One: Without Love We Perish (A Quick One Records, 2014)

Desde los primeros acordes, este Ep de los franceses Dead Horse One me suena a Ride: ambientes pausados, calma distorsionada, voces que se pierden… y es que el mismo está producido por Mark Gardener, quien fuera cabeza pensante junto con Andy Bell de los de Oxford. A veces pienso lo que nos hemos perdido con la no reunión de éstos, ahora que el Shoegaze volvió a estar vigente y la cantidad de émulos que circulan por ahí. Y me apena ver a Bell perdiendo el tiempo con los malditos hermanos Gallagher.
En cualquier caso, y para no perderme de lo que ahora me interesa, en el disco de debut de Dead Horse One (por cierto, me encanta su nombre), han abandonado algo su vena Psicodélica y resulta ser un trabajo algo emulador del sonido de Ride, pero quién no iba a enamorarse del sonido de Ride… ¡Amo los noventa!

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Dead Horse One: Heavenly choir of jet engines (Cranes Records, 2013)

“If this were 1968, the press would be all over Dead Horse One and hail them as the new kings of the psychedelic scene” Así se abre la crítica sobre este debut del combo francés Dead Horse One: Heavenly choir of jet engines.
Y así precisamente es como suena, como un coro celestial de motores. Su característico sonido basado en el muro de distorsión no es precisamente nuevo, ni siquiera su contenido es novedoso. Pero su mezcla de Shoegaze y Psicodelia es lo suficientemente atractiva como para hacer de este Heavenly choir of jet engines un disco altamente adictivo.
Alone y He goes down, los dos primeros temas son absolutamente epatantes. Su introducción con guitarras de doce cuerdas nos da una idea de lo que nos vamos a encontrar, una especie de cruce de caminos entre Brian Jonestown Massacre y Ride. To pretend deriva el camino hacia territorios más Psicodélicos, y Cruel winter, el corte que cierra el disco, es quizás el que no encuentre un acomodo exacto en el lote, su aire de pelos cardados a lo Robert Smith así lo delata.
Prometen álbum de debut para comienzos del próximo año, producido por Mark Gardener y a menos que tenga otros cuatro o cinco momentos como los que se disfrutan aquí, seguro que se convertirá en un gran disco.

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“If this were 1968, the press would be all over Dead Horse One and hail them as the new kings of the psychedelic scene. Every music aficionado would know about Heavenly Choir of Jet Engines, and everybody would want a piece of these guys. However, this is 2012, and good psychedelic music gets limited press. The band’s members, Olivier Debard, Jérome Simonian and Antoine Pinet, have seemed to make an EP that does fantastic justice to the genre. Although they classify their sound as shoegaze/psychedelic, there are more traces of psychedelic than shoegaze. Psychedelic shoegaze? Now there’s a genre I’d like to see one day but I digress.  
Let’s talk about the music. “Alone” and “He Goes Down”, I’m calling it, are two of the best back-to-back tracks that I could ask for due to the bipolar nature of them. “Alone” is a dark song that sounds like post-punk toppled off with the sweet distortion of acid rock, and “He Goes Down” has a nice, smooth, jangly quality to it, not to mention a hint of the days of simplistic, yet catchy-as-hell solos (if you hear it, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about). “To Pretend” and “Cruel Winter” unfortunately don’t have the same qualities to them, and they are weaker than their two predecessors. That doesn’t mean they’re bad, quite the opposite; they’re very good additions to Heavenly Choir of Jet Engines, but the first two tracks are just so phenomenally done, expectations were set too high.
The form of production that dominates A Heavenly Choir of Jet Engines is the all-so-familiar ‘wall of sound’ technique, which is actually done quite well here. Although it’s not necessarily a shoegaze record, this form of production actually works in its favor. It’s very reminiscent of 70s hard rock with the semi-primitive production. One thing I noticed after repeat listens are all the background instruments, such as keyboard subtly keeping the groove in the distance. It’s tiny additions like that which make me absolutely love the job I have.
Who would love this EP? Fans of psychedelic rock, guaranteed. And if you’re not a fan, maybe it could be a nice introduction, at least to the modern scene. Am I going to go out and declare it to be my new obsession? No, it’s not my new obsession. No, it’s not the best thing I’ve heard all year. Yes, it is something that I’ve been wanting for quite some time, and yes, it is definitely worth listening to. Judging by the quality of this release, I’m waiting with high hopes for the next release from Dead Horse One, and I hope that I’m not alone with those hopes!” (The Real Music)

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