Cassette Review: Horselover Fats "Liberty Ashes" (Northern Spy Records)

[$7.99 // https://horseloverfats.bandcamp.com/album/liberty-ashes]

When you start listening to something I think you almost instinctively begin to listen for pieces inside of it which remind you of other music you've heard.   It seems only natural.    Someone who is a fan of, say, Nirvana could pull out pieces in a band's music and think "Oh, the vocals sound simliar and that's why I think I like it so much".    With Horselover Fats, I can't put my finger on any one influence really because I've not heard anything quite like this before.    The best way to describe the sounds on "Liberty Ashes" is to think of it as having two similar yet different sides which blend together to form what you hear.

On one hand, there is a slow, brooding, sort of eerie instrumental band feel to it.   It reminds me of various artists I've heard before in that aspect- which at times even hits that FNL spot- and you know, it can go from some sharpness right into these sounds of almost haunted moans.    Though without a specific artist to name it does have some similarities with music I've listened to before and probably even reviewed before although, again, I'm not going to go back and find names to name.

At the same time, you will hear this loud distortion.   You will hear drums banging to the point where they sound like they could be glitch.   Guitars rattle through with powerful bass lines and there is an overall sense of rock to the music as well.    More than rock, it feels fitting that it looks as if it's going to snow outside today because I imagine having that "power through" quality of someone getting stuck in the snow and pushing down the accelerator without going anywhere and then slowly making that progress.    In a word, this could be described as sludge.

To have these two sounds on cassette is not uncommon.   I've probably reviewed any number of artists which I can apply either of those two paragraphs to in almost a copy and paste way.   But the fact that those two sounds are coming together like that, I just have not heard that before but I am really enjoying it.   And now it is snowing outside for the first time this season.