"The Gorgon Tongue" opens with distant strains of Aaron Copland and John Fahey filtered through a lush dronescape. The track, "Finale," shares a passing resemblance with Tim Hecker and Fennesz, but it is a distinctly American piece of music, one that draws upon the mystic chords of our collective memory. It is also the most beautiful piece drone in recent memory. Yet before this record is through, Copland and Fahey will give way to Burzum and sheets of screeching black metal, offering the listener the wide range of tastes and sounds that is Horseback.Horseback is Jenks Miller, with the occasional help from friends. Over the last few years Miller has crafted works alternating between shimmering experimental sounds and blacked/dirge metal, while throwing in generous chunks of blues and psych-rock for good measure. For the most part, Miller keeps the two separated, although drone certainly plays a large role throughout. “The Gorgon Tongue” collects two radically different previous releases from Miller, yet oddly enough one flows into the other rather well, mainly due to the fact that both are based in drone. Although each recording is based in drone, there is nothing static about either. Rather each record is actually fairly dynamic.
“Impale Golden Horn” comprises the first half of “Gorgon Tongue,” and is Miller at his most beautiful and transcendent. Originally released in 2007, the album was Miller’s first release under the name Horseback. The four track epic is all shimmering effects, subtle organs, guitars and piano. There is an airy lightness to each track, even though they are incredibly dense compositions full of layers and layers of repeated melodic motifs and voluminous sustained drones. “Laughing Celestial Architect” and “Blood Fountain” introduces tinges of post-rock into the mix, which only ratchets up the emotionality already inherent in these pieces. It’s actually all kind of heavy, but heavy in the way that Jesu’s “Conqueror” is heavy. It sounds victorious and cosmic, rather than defeated and isolated. “Forbidden Planet,” on the other hand, is a much darker and claustrophobic affair.
Originally a cassette-only release from last year, “Forbidden Planet” finds Miller indulging his black metal muse. Certainly this six-song recording owes as much to drone and experimental music as does “Impale Golden Horn,” but played at the grey to black end of the color scale. The pieces are mainly comprised of drone-like tremolo-picked guitars and Miller’s snarling vocals, yet just as “Impale” contained snippets of melody throughout, so does “Forbidden Planet.” Also present are subtle, but powerful, rhythms. This mixture of black metal with dynamic drone is nothing new. One need only look to Sunn o)))’s “Black One” for precedent. That doesn’t make this recording any less spectacular. It takes a special talent to do this and do it right, and Miller is one of the very few in the wake of Sunn o))) that can. This is some seriously heavy and powerful stuff, and is not for the weak of heart.
Because of the radically different nature of “Forbidden Planet” and “Impale Golden Horn,” this record finds itself in the unique position of finding favor among a variety of people, some of who may otherwise not listen to one or the other. Yet for someone whose enjoys both ends of the light spectrum, “Gorgon Tongue” is a boon, as well as a major revelation of the substantial talent that is Jenks Miller. Add to this discography 2009’s incredible blues-psych-metal dirge “The Invisible Mountain,” and you have a rather diverse and formidable collection of recordings under the name Horseback by Miller. Needless to say this collection only adds to the anticipation surrounding future Horseback records. Thankfully we won’t have to wait long, since a split LP with the like-minded Locrian is imminent.
"Blood Fountain"
Horseback - "Blood Fountain" from stereogum on Vimeo.
Stream "Gorgon Tongue" here:
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