No aspiring artist would ever be foolish enough to ask advice from me, but as I’ve said previously the one suggestion I would always say to a new band is that they should simply make their name easily ‘googleable’ - something I decided upon many years ago whilst tearing my hair out trying to find out more about then new Norwegian band The Fjords.
So after searching through lots of photos of equestrian events, I was almost relieved to finally discover that Swedish band Horse Show were actually named after a Horse Show, in this case the (apparently) famous Falsterbo Horse Show, and thus explaining the reason why their debut EP has been so named In the process.
There‘s nothing worse than a band being hyped up as a ‘super group’, so I won’t do that, but they certainly were handpicked by founder Erik Klinga, with the 5 members also having played in excellent indie bands such as the fabulous Simian Ghost, FEWS, YAST and the often featured Hater. The result is an almost democratically represented release, where they seem to attempt to do justice to everyone’s musical talents.
Now that sounds a little dangerous, after all having Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard both playing centre midfield in the same England team never really worked, but Falsterbo is a coherent, fun release, with lots of energy, and to state the obvious, these guys can really play.
They open with ‘Used To’ and immediately they hit home with a really strong guitar and overall band sound, and whilst the song seems to miss out on a ‘killer chorus’, the swell of sound and the ‘competing’ band members make a hell of a noise. Even more so in ‘Memory Chain’, possibly my highlight, louder, darker, harder hitting, intense and pretty wonderful instrumentally, especially when the searing guitars take over the track completely some 2 minutes in.
‘Closed Eyes’ comparitively offers some respite, almost allowing time to contemplate the lyrics, whilst there’s a nice melody and fluid instrumental section, whilst ’Shame’ reminds me of the sheer variety of indie influences this band has, before they share vocal duties and wrap up with Hästskandalen, which I like almost simply because it really does take a few listens to appreciate the complexity of the instrumental section.
It’s true that the selection of tracks probably misses a ‘hit single’ that gives the band some big radio exposure or more importantly catapults them onto every Spotify playlist out there, but I really like Falsterbo, with a great indie sound, high energy, intense tracks and instrumental sections that really elevate the songs to a different level. I have a feeling that when these guys can find more time to rehearse and write songs together, they could come up with something really special, and that‘s something to look forward to.