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Reviews

Horse Lords — Comradely Objects
(RVNG Intl. RVNGNL95, 2022, CD / LP / DL)

by Jon Davis, Published 2023-06-19

Comradely Objects Cover art

I’ve often heard people say “Music is mathematics.” I know what they’re talking about, though I might quibble with the absolute truth of the statement. Music is no more mathematics than a tree is. Both can be analyzed in mathematical terms, but that doesn’t indicate equivalence on any deep level. Everything in the universe can be described with mathematics, but everything is math only on a metaphorical level. A person can pick up a ukulele and make up a song without knowing any math, and while a listener can apply math to the result, there was no conscious math in the creation. Certainly music can be created with math in mind, and I’d be willing to bet that the band Horse Lords thinks about such things a lot. First of all, they favor just intonation over the standard equal tempered scale. Basically, just intonation is where the scales are built up of tones with pure mathematical relationships behind them, which causes the waveforms of pitches to resonate better with each other. (There’s way more to it than that, but you can do your own research if you’re interested.) In addition to the math that goes into their tuning system, Horse Lords music applies a very mathy approach to time, dividing beats and patterns up in various ways. We’ve heard this kind of approach used by numerous artists and composers — I’ll just mention Battles and Sonar here because their music is clearly similar in many ways, but many listeners familiar with math rock and related sounds can come up with other examples. The band features Andrew Bernstein (saxophone, percussion), Max Eilbacher (bass, electronics), Owen Gardner (guitar), and Sam Haberman (drums), and Gardner is also responsible for customizing their instruments to play in their harmonic scheme. In subjective terms, their alternative tunings make only a very slight difference in the overall sound — I imagine many listeners could get all the way through an album like Comradely Objects without realizing there’s anything unusual in that respect. As odd as it may seem, I find this music — academic as it may seem from my description — to be joyful and entertaining. If I’m in the mood to analyze it, there’s incredible depth available, and if I just want to enjoy it, that works too.

Filed under: New releases, 2022 releases

Related artist(s): Horse Lords

More info
http://horselords.bandcamp.com/album/comradely-objects-2

 

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