DEAD HORSE ONE - WHEN LOVE RUNS DRY (2022)

"Shoegaze on steroids" from the French Dead Horse One is having a great time and doesn't seem to slow down. After their fantastic album The West Is the Best from 2019, they are topping it with the crunchy and overwhelming sound of their new EP called WHEN LOVE RUNS DRY.

What I love about the Frenchmen is definitely their heavier approach to, let's say, dream pop. The vocals are perfectly dispersed and heavenly airy but apart from that, it's very much a heavy kind of guitar rock bordering with shoegaze and post-rock. It's Nothing, it's Asteroid, it's SOM but with this indie rock meets stoner metal and grunge twist. You can feel in your bones how crushing the guitars are; never mind the Slowdive-like vocals, it's a real avalanche of loud guitar-focused noise with clear and show-stealing drums on top of that.

The short EP, however, has also slower, moodier fragments. It's not only the lyrical ballad Mentally Homeless but also the piano version of the album's biggest banger, Static King. Whatever they do, the artists are so much on fire that everything works for them and I can't wait for more music coming from their direction.

WHEN LOVE RUNS DRY costs 6 EUR.

Dead Horse One - The West Is the Best (2019)

Check: Static King

Country: France

Genre: heavy dream pop

Label: Requiem pour un Twister / Modulor

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Dead Horse One - The West Is the Best (2019) EN

Shoegaze meeting post-grunge which results in "a collection of thwarted love songs in the spirit of Sparklehorse and other such 90’s bands". At the end of November last year, the third album from the French Dead Horse One, The West Is the Best, was released.

The title itself had to evoke some controversies as the band's leader, Olivier Debard had to make a statement saying that ”>The West Is the Best< concerns a variety of complex contemporary and cultural themes and is therefore intentionally ambiguous". The title is one thing, but the most important thing is that music is good. It's the band's second collaboration with RIDE's Mark Gardner who helped the French when they were debuting and now decided to mix the new material.

The psychedelic pop/rock on the album indeed sounds as if taken straight from the 90s. There are audible inspirations not only by Sparklehorse or RIDE (in The Shrine!) but also by My Bloody Valentine (in the repeating riff in Saudade for example). Just like the legends, the French don't try to reach an extra quality of sound, more like they leave a lot of noise and reverbs that make up the mysterious climate of their old-school shoegaze.

The West Is the Best costs 9 EUR.

Check: The Shrine

Country: France

Genre: old-school shoegaze

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Dead Horse One - The West Is the Best (2019) PL

Shoegaze spotyka post-grunge, a wynika z tego "kolekcja udaremnionych piosenek o miłości w duchu Sparklehorse i innych podobnych zespołów z lat 90-tych". Pod koniec listopada zeszłego roku wyszła trzecia płyta francuskiego Dead Horse One - The West Is the Best.

Sam tytuł od początku musiał wzbudzać kontrowersje bo głos zabrał wokalista zespołu, Olivier Debard mówiąc, że ”>The West Is the Best< (>Zachód jest najlepszy<) dotyczy wielu skomplikowanych współczesnych zagadnień więc musiał być celowo nieprecyzyjny". Tytuł tytułem, ale najważniejsze, że płyta broni się muzyką. Jest to druga kolaboracja z liderem RIDE - Markiem Gardnerem, który pomagał Francuzom przy debiucie, a teraz zajął się miksowaniem materiału.

Psychodeliczny pop/rock zespołu faktycznie brzmi jak wyjęty z lat 90-tych. Słychać w nim inspiracje nie tylko Sparklehorse czy RIDE (w The Shrine!), ale też My Bloody Valentine (w powtarzającym się riffie w Saudade chociażby). Podobnie jak te legendy, Francuzi nie silą się na niezwykłą jakość dźwięku, a raczej zostawiają mnóstwo szumów i pogłosów, które budują tajemniczy klimat ich old-schoolowego shoegaze'u.

The West Is the Best kosztuje 39 złotych (9 EUR).

Sprawdź: The Shrine

Kraj: Francja

Szufladka: old-school shoegaze

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