I Break Horses :: Hearts

"I break horses / Doesn't take me long / Just a few well-placed words / And their wandering hearts are gone." — Smog

It's unclear whether Stockholm band I Break Horses is named after the aforementioned Smog song or simply the metaphor of training a wild animal. What is clear is that like the Bill Callahan-penned track, the music of Maria Lindén and Fredrik Balck is fiercely heartbreaking. While Callahan strikes with words, this Swedish duo's weapon of choice is a dense sonic blanket of swirling keyboards and synths, thick gain-fueled guitars, and heavy crashing drums. Cutting through that wall of shoegaze-inspired sound is the beautiful singing of Lindén, whose voice often appears like a hit of sunshine in a journey deep into the darkened woods. I Break Horses' songs don't simply play, they slowly build and climb up into the stratosphere, only to come back down at the end of each track in a daze of tweaked emotions, often leaving this listener asking, "What just happened?" The group's debut, Hearts, is out August 15th via Bella Union.

I Break Horses - "Winter Beats" (from Hearts)
I Break Horses - "Hearts" (from Hearts)

Watch the gorgeously shot video for "Hearts" after the jump.

A Closer Look: Bill Callahan's "Drover"

In a recent article for the New Yorker, music writer Sasha Frere-Jones asked Bill Callahan—the cult singer/songwriter of Smog fame—if he'd ever "killed it" with a song. It's a silly question, but Callahan candidly responded, "I think I killed it on 'Drover.'" For anyone who's spent time with his latest masterwork, Apocalypse, and its opening track, the songwriter's admission simply confirms what we as listeners already know: "Drover" is a career-defining moment—a gritty and nuanced epic that leaves everything on the table.

The nearly 6-minute long track places the album on a bleak course with a lone frontiersman set against the task of controlling a herd of cattle. The drover here is left with nothing but his own thoughts and "dreams," the cold barren landscape, and the beasts he's burdened with protecting: "Don't touch them / Don't try to hurt them." The scenery here is colored with sparse brushstrokes: first with Callahan's own acoustic guitar, and then a tense build of clacking drums sticks, pounding bass drum, and jarring distorted bursts of guitar. The whole scene plays out as if on the edge of a knife, nervously shifting balance between major and minor keys and harmony and dissonance.

Bill Callahan - "Baby’s Breath”

"She was not a weed, she was a flower," sings Bill Callahan in his simultaneously cold and affective, deeply toned talk-sing voice. The brilliant mind behind Smog returns with a new LP, Apocalypse, on April 19th via Drag City. On "Baby's Breath," the contrast between Callahan's simple finger-picked acoustic guitar and the sparse backdrop of a fleeting electric's abstract dissonances create a scene that is as beautiful as it is chilling. (Photo by Laurent Orseau)

Bill Callahan - "Baby's Breath" (from Apocalypse)