Lower Dens/Horse Lords Split 7"

Honstly, I feel Famous Class' "LAMC" series of split singles is one of the most ingenious things going on right now in music. A brand new track by an established artist, backed by a new track from a band handpicked by the A-side artist. It's simple, and probably has been done before, but I doubt the results have been this consecutively excellent. For instance, they're latest 7", a split between Lower Dens and newcomers Horse Lords. Lower Dens' contribution "Non Grata" is a pulsing, quivering track; its eerie, coldwave synths coursing like a dark heartbeat through the song while before the guitars and drum machine kick in to expand on the electronic krautrock sound the band mastered on Nootropics. It's a forbidding and haunting track that pulls one in within the first few notes. Horse Lords' song "Bending to the Lash" sounds like the noisy, fraternal twin to "Non Grata". It uses almost all the same instrumentation (bubbling synth lines, mechanical drums, pulsing bass) to create something entirely different, much more polyrhythmic and thus evoking something that feels like a decaying future. But both tracks work together (unintentionally yet perfectly) because of the restraint at their core. Both bands and their respective songs embellish something robotic, intentional or not, and that similar mindset is what allows this split to work so well.



Links:

Lower Dens' Website
Horse Lords' Tumblr
Buy the Lower Dens/Horse Lords split 7" here, from Famous Class Records