I Break Horses "Warnings" (2020)

Warnings

release date: May 20, 2020

format: digital (12 x File, FLAC)

[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,92]

producer: Maria Lindén

label: Bella Union - nationality: Sweden

Track highlights: 1. "Turn" (4 / 5) - 2. "Silence" - 4. "I'll Be the Death of You" - 6. "The Prophet" (4,5 / 5) - 7. "Neon Lights" - 8. "I Live at Night" - 9. "Baby You Have Travelled for Miles Without Love in Your Eyes" (4 / 5) - 10. "Death Engine"

3rd studio album by I Break Horses as a follow-up to the more than six year old Chiaroscuro (Jan. 2014) is much as usual produced by the band's dynamo, multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and composer Maria Lindén, and it's like the duo's two previous albums released on British label Bella Union.

Six years is a long time between releases in modern popular music culture, but it's the pace of Lindén and percussionist Fredrik Balck who seem in complete control, although part of the explanation for the long wait may have to do with Lindén's perfectionism and the fact that some recordings were lost. The album consists of 12 tracks varying from 1 to 9 minutes and with a total running time of 54 minutes.

Musically, the album lands somewhere in between the first two albums - Hearts from 2011 with its guitar-driven shoegaze and My Bloody Valentine-esque wall of sound versus the more electronic synthpop release from 2014. You'll find energetic uptempo tracks with almost inaudible guitar as background instrumentation, but otherwise it's a more strict synthpop and electropop version of dreampop guided by keyboards, synths, and drum programming, the duo presents here. Lindén is undoubtedly the duo's leading figure - in addition to her vocal contributions, she handles guitar, bass, and keyboards, while Balck, in addition to his part of co-songwriter, apparently is content to contribute as the duo's rhythmic planner.

Warnings has been released to fine reviews, and it's an album that may leave you with a feeling of something ingenious and original pointing back to the best by The Knife, but which also borrows from Cocteau Twins and Radio Dept., but cleverly avoids imitation, because it appears thoroughly new. Lindén doesn't reveal an impressive vocal as some contemporary pop artists, but on Warnings the vocal side is more of a contribution to the tone of dreampop in line with the sound of a synthesiser or the keyboards, and the rhythmic contribution of percussion and drum programming varies from trance-like monotony over more traditional simple rhythm structures to something almost dynamic organic as you would find on albums by The Creatures.

With Warnings, I Break Horses has made a minor masterpiece by balancing the positive energy of their debut with the greater rhythmic complexity of the follow-up. It's a huge musical overview with ties to various styles, which creates rare dynamics, and it's an inviting and captivating sound that deserves all the great reviews. With Warnings the duo has made a most surprising leap to the front of bus.

Highly recommended.

[ allmusic.com, Under the Radar 4,5 / 5, NME, 👍The Line of Best Fit 4 / 5 stars ]

2020 Favourite releases: 1. Gorillaz Song Machine, Season One - Strange Timez - 2. Kesi BO4L - 3. I Break Horses Warnings

I Break Horses "Chiaroscuro" (2014)

Chiaroscuro

release date: Jan. 21, 2014

format: digital

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,58]

producer: Maria Lindén

label: Bella Union - nationality: Sweden

Track highlights: 1. "You Burn" - 2. "Faith" - 3. "Ascension" - 4. "Denial" - 7. "Disclosure"

2nd studio album by Swedish duo I Break Horses following the 2011 debut album Hearts consists of 9 cuts with a total running length of just under 46 minutes.

Maria Lindén is the band's multi-instrumentalist, who has also composed the music, while the lyrics have been created in collaboration with percussionist Fredrik Balck.

Chiaroscuro is a markedly different from Hearts, which largely departed from a familiar scene crowded by bands such as My Bloody Valentine and Jesus and Mary Chain, and which was an album you would be tempted to label as shoegaze revival. Compared to that, this new album sounds as the music from a completely different artist. Here, the duo steps into the keyboard universe of electropop filled with keyboards, synthesizers, sequencers, drum programming, and various software programs as elementary instruments. In this way, the guitar has stepped much into the background or is completely out of a soundscape, which is far from a copy, but in terms of style nevertheless builds on music that reminds of The Knife, Crystal Castles, Cocteau Twins, and Beach House (another Bella Union band). If you enjoyed the band's grinding 90s sound, you will probably be disappointed or think that it's completely different people behind the music here, but just as the debut was Lindén and Balck, Chiaroscuro is made by the same duo, and it also proves how inspiration is a thing you collect from various places.

It's both a happy-go-lucky pop atmosphere, certified dance beats, and gloomy timbres without losing a sense of coherence. It's a fine and artistically challenging album that may not be called the best of the year, but Chiaroscuro garnered international praise and is quite an exciting and original follow-up to Hearts.

[ allmusic.com, Drowned in Sound 4 / 5, PopMatters, Uncut 3,5 / 5, Gaffa.dk 5 / 6 stars ]

I Break Horses "Hearts" (2011)

Hearts [debut]

release date: Aug. 22, 2011

format: digital

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,33]

producer: Maria Lindén

label: Bella Union - nationality: Sweden

Track highlights: 1. "Winter Beats" - 2. "Hearts" - 3. "Wired" - 5. "Pulse" - 6. "Cancer"

Studio debut album by Swedish duo I Break Horses consisting of composer and multi-instrumentalist Maria Lindén and percussionist Fredrik Balck. Five years earlier, Lindén helped forming the band Friska Viljor in 2006, and shortly after, she also became a member of the band Blackstrap. Fredrik Balck is former member of several bands including Aerospace and the band Strip Music, and after breaking up with these he was included in the trio Pueblo. Around 2009, Lindén came in touch with former Cocteau Twins bassist Simon Raymonde, who is one of the driving forces behind the independent record label Bella Union, and Raymonde offered Lindén to release her music and with Balck, I Break Horses became a reality.

All music is composed by Lindén, who in addition to singing also handles guitar, bass, and keyboards, while Balck is credited as songwriter and percussionist. The album consists of nine tracks and has a total running length of 40 minutes.

Stylistically, it's probably what you could call shoegaze revival deeply inspired by My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, and Cocteau Twins without much new under the sun. These are original tracks, where the inspiration from classic shoegaze and dream pop is quite evident. The album garnered international attention and received enthusiastic reviews, but also criticism for not being particularly innovative. And yes, the soundscape is familiar and has been trodden many times in the 90s, and in that way Hearts doesn't bring anything new to the table, but the compositions are justified by offering something new to a style you may appreciate.

A somewhat anonymous but exciting start.

[ allmusic.com, Q Magazine, Mojo 3 / 5, Gaffa.dk 4 / 6, Under the Radar 4 / 5 stars ]