Listening to Horse Lords is like watching a master watchmaker assemble a timepiece that somehow also functions as a dance floor. The sound is incredibly clean and sharp, defined by a 'just intonation' tuning system that makes every chord ring with a strange, crystalline purity. It is music that demands your full attention, pulling you into a vortex of interlocking rhythms and repeating patterns that feel both ancient and futuristic.
What truly sets them apart is the physical modification of their instruments. By moving the frets on their guitars to achieve non-standard intervals, they create a harmonic language that sounds 'off' to the uninitiated but quickly reveals itself as a more natural, resonant way of hearing. The interplay between the saxophone and the percussion creates a muscular, funky energy that prevents the music from ever feeling too academic or cold.
Start with 'Comradely Objects' to hear their most refined studio work. It perfectly captures the tension between their mathematical rigor and their raw, basement-show energy. It is the ideal soundtrack for when you need to lock into a difficult task or simply want to experience rock music stripped of its cliches and rebuilt from the atoms up.
Horse Lords are an American avant-garde rock band from Baltimore. The band consists of Andrew Bernstein (saxophone/percussion), Max Eilbacher (bass/electronics), Owen Gardner (guitar), and Sam Haberman (drums). According to Discogs the band "plays experimental music with elements of krautrock, post-punk, Appalachian and African musical traditions, polyrhythmia, arcane tunings and electronics. The band uses the just intonation tuning system favored by avantgarde composers La Monte Young and James Tenney, which requires the use of hand-modified guitars with repositioned frets, re-tuned and customized by [band member Owen] Gardner." Their self-titled debut album was released in 2012, after which the band toured with Matmos, Guerilla Toss, and Guardian Alien, and played festivals such as Hopscotch Music Festival, North by Northeast, and Fields Fest. Their second album, Hidden Cities, was released in 2014. Pitchfork, reviewing their 2016 album Interventions, wrote that "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 reviewed Interventions for the New York Times, calling it "invigorating" and "daring and energetic", noting that the band were "borrowing sounds and techniques from Mauritanian guitar music, free jazz, classical minimalism and other places" including being "way into hocketing... This music feels very live, shivering with energy".
Shares instrumental only (vocal style); focused work, urban night, basement show (atmosphere)
Shares instrumental only (vocal style); intense, restless, contemplative (moods)
Shares instrumental only (vocal style); focused work, urban night, basement show (atmosphere)
Shares instrumental only (vocal style); intense, restless, contemplative (moods)
Shares instrumental only (vocal style); intense, restless, contemplative (moods)
Shares instrumental only (vocal style); intense, restless, contemplative (moods)
Shares instrumental only (vocal style); intense, restless, contemplative (moods)
Shares instrumental only (vocal style); intense, restless, contemplative (moods)
Shares instrumental only (vocal style); focused work, urban night, basement show (atmosphere)
Shares avant-garde jazz, math rock, library, saxophone (subgenre)
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