As much as we all have our own little musical niches, I think every avid music fan likes to hear variations on the sound. You don’t want a bunch of carbon copy bands running around. You want music that sounds familiar but with new and unexpected aspects. I think all of us really like it when it sounds far outside what we were expecting but with subtle recognizable sounds. That’s what Bristol’s Sugar Horse is to me. The band was described to me originally as a doom project with a lot of other sounds thrown in, but all I could hear was the other stuff. It’s a wholly unique blend of influences that I find totally intriguing, and I think a lot of you will agree with me.
First off, wow. The shoegaze is strong with this band. I absolutely love hearing this kind of soft-to-loud-to-soft dynamic. It sets the sobriety of the song but with a grand spectacle. This kind of song builds a quiet gravitas that artists need to be taken seriously, and Sugar Horse nails it with “Phil Spector in Hell.” We’ll get to the doom aspects of Sugar Horse’s sound momentarily, but let’s all appreciate the reverb-soaked lifestyle this track gives us.
At this point, you’re probably wondering about the “doom experience” I referred to. Once I got this track to premiere, I went back and listened to some of Sugar Horse’s previous material and another new track, “Fat Dracula.” There is a lot of creativity and originality happening in Sugar Horse’s music. “Fat Dracula” shows off a lot of uptempo noise rock-influenced sounds. Older tracks show off more of a fusion between doom and shoegaze that sound like little else I’ve ever heard. I’m genuinely impressed with what has fallen into my lap with Sugar Horse, and I can’t wait to hear more. Their latest record, The Live Long After, arrives on August 27th, 2021, and you should visit their Bandcamp page to pre-order the album and hear “Fat Dracula.”