Cover shot – SUGAR HORSE / LLNN
The monolithically heavy UK quartet Sugar Horse have released a split 7” with equally monolithically heavy labelmates LLNN.
The band comment: “It is an unprecedented honour to be able to release a little split single with the good folks in LLNN. I saw them for the first time at ArcTanGent 2023, headlining the same stage we headlined the night before and was completely blown away by just how terrifying the whole set was. It was oppressive, it was demonic, it was enormous.
“Coming up with a track that could keep up with their intensity was a challenge. A real head scratcher. We came to the realisation that it was have to be pure dissonance. Just semi-tones and pain….and so ‘Sleep Paralysis Demon’ was born. A song about living with the contradiction & confusion of the internet age, and the timely death of one Henry Kissinger.”
Stream and purchase the 7” here: https://orcd.co/llnn-sugarhorse
Sugar Horse‘s new music follows the release of the Bristolians’ mighty new EP Truth Or Consequences, New Mexico (3rd November, Fat Dracula Records/distributed by Metal Blade Records in US).
An epic achievement, Truth… is, in signature Sugar Horse style, one single long song: a meditation and exploration of everything the note A has to offer.
Telling the story of Truth Or Consequences, New Mexico, the band state: “It’s frequently been difficult for us, as a band, to limit ourselves to “normal” pop song lengths and structures….as evidenced in pretty much all of our releases to date. From time to time we feel the need to loose the ropes that bind us and let our Long & Tedious flag fly freely. Truth Or Consequences, New Mexico is the result of said untethering.
“We’ve always found the idea of exploring a single note over long stretches of time interesting and this song is that idea taken to an extreme logical conclusion. It’s an exploration of the note A in all its possible variations.”
Sugar Horse have recently toured with post-rock luminaries 65daysofstatic across Europe, as well as dates with Pianos Become The Teeth, Liturgy, Chat Pile and an appearance at ArcTanGent festival.
A lot of people take the name Sugar Horse to be a drug reference – perhaps fitting for a band that sound like the last moments of a three-day binge. Darting wildly between dark/light, pain/bliss, sacred/profane, Sugar Horse are unpredictable and unrestrained.
Formed in what is now considered to be the utopian dreamscape of 2015, the band grew slowly at first. Far from fully formed, but steadily gaining limbs, heads and vital organs. Finally, 2019’s DRUJ followed swiftly by 2020’s DRUGS saw them hit on a relentless stride of eclectic releases that simultaneously confused and entranced audiences.
2021 saw the band encamp in a former Lutheran church to record their debut album, The Live Long After, releasing it via Brighton’s own Small Pond Records. Publications such as The Quietus describing the record as “shift[ing] dispositions fluidly, taking elements of extreme aggression alongside floaty Post-Metal” and Echoes & Dust calling it “a monumental achievement”. The album took every disparate element that Sugar Horse previously employed and amplified them, while juxtaposing each next to each other, with genuinely unpredictable and exciting consequences.
2022 saw no relent from the band’s fast paced release schedule, as they put out an anthemic shoegaze single in ‘Pictures Of Dogs Having Sex’, followed swiftly by their collaborative Waterloo Teeth EP. A release that paired Sugar Horse’s terrifying eclecticism with guest appearances from twelve other artists in just four short(ish) songs. Each artist coming from a different area of the modern British music scene, whether that be world conquering post-punk bass lines from IDLES’ Adam Devonshire, heavy titans Conjurer and Pupil Slicer’s throat crippling wails, or a shredding guitar solo from Biffy Clyro/Oceansizeaxe wielder Mike Vennart. The EP packs in an album’s worth of genre mutilating twists and turns into just 25 minutes of music.
