Brown Horse Reservoir Loose Music A Confident Debut That is Pleasingly Difficult to Pigeonhole Earlier in 2023, I caught Brown Horse supporting Joshua Ray Walker in Manchester on the day that their signing to Loose was announced. Visually, they...
Brown Horse
Reservoir
Loose Music
A Confident Debut That is Pleasingly Difficult to Pigeonhole
Earlier in 2023, I caught Brown Horse supporting Joshua Ray Walker in Manchester on the day that their signing to Loose was announced.
Visually, they struck me as an eclectic bunch – the mix of a traditional guitar/bass/drums with pedal steel and a Heath Robinson mic setup on the piano accordion, giving the impression of something that was determined not to be constrained by preconceived notions of cool.
Musically, I picked up a lo-fi/indie/Americana vibe at that gig and that’s not too far from what has ended up on this release.
Opener “Stealing Horses” opens with Isbellesque guitar before a mellower tremulous Simone Feliceesque vocal leads into trippy accordion/banjo riffing.
It’s far greater than the sum of those parts, based as it is, around an insistent melody. Title track “Reservoir”, which follows is more downbeat in tone and the hiccupping narrative is wrapped in pads and swirls of accordion – mood music from the edges of several acoustic genres, cleverly existing within and outside the labels it’ll get tagged with.
“Shootback” also starts in a low-key vein before evolving into a hybrid of Neil Young and early Aztec Camera guitar Frippery (sic) – the common feature of these tracks so far is the insistent rhythm – “Everlasting” continues this mesmeric, hypnotic approach but adds layers of vocal and hookiness, with tinkling piano the icing on the cake.
“Bloodstain” takes a louder, riffier approach – positioned at the halfway point on the album, it’s the sonic Höhepunkt, certainly as far as volume is concerned.
“Paul Gilley” is a tale of tragedy about the writer who penned “Cold, Cold Heart” and “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” – part celebration, part eulogy with a wider tale of cathartic release through inspiration. Should be a single IMO…
“Sunfisher” which follows again examines the darker side of the soul, dealing as it does with sadder reflections, set against an almost anthemic arrangement of soaring fiddle.
“Silver Bullet’s” grungy garage rock is quite the contrast, with the tube and saturation turned up a notch on the guitars before the sway-along accordion-fest of “Outtakes” – and the classic use of a pause too. Final track “Called Away” starts with gentle folkie finger picking and close mic-ed breathy vocals declaring that …
“don’t you know it’s winter now?”
It’s an apt ending to the melancholy yet philosophical tone of the album.
A confident debut, that – pleasingly – is really difficult to pigeonhole – having said that, there’s the feel of the Felice Brothers all over this which is no bad thing.
With plenty of gigs in the diary for the start of 2024, you’re going to be hearing a lot more of this album, both far and near.
It’s the kind of music that benefits from repeated immersion, so best book those tickets and buy the album, because if you leave it too late, they’re going to sell out….
Review by Nick Barber
released 19th January 2024
https://www.facebook.com/brownhorsemusic/
BUY DON’T SPOTIFY
https://www.loosemusic.com/page/product-detail/reservoir/
https://fanlink.to/brownhorsereservoir
https://brownhorse.bandcamp.com/track/willow
