I Break Horses

Having had the pleasure of watching a horse whisperer "break" a horse on his ranch in Wyoming this summer, I can tell you that when I saw the band name I Break Horses, computer generated shoegaze drenched synth pop is not what I had in mind.  But as autumn drifted into winter, the grey skies increasingly matching my concrete surroundings, I let go of expectations of the implications of the bands name, and let the sound sink in.  

This music was built for your headphones or a dam loud stereo.  Track's build to plateaus founded by a wall of synths that grow slowly into subtle peaks.  For obvious examples, think My Bloody Valentine meets M83.  On a recent ski trip to some of the largest mountains I have ever seen, I found myself playing these songs in my head as I descended the hill, realizing that the scale of the sounds here, big and dense, matched perfectly the scale of a slowly descending thousands of feet, massive snow covered slopes falling all around.  Big sounds for big places, computerized or not, it somehow fit perfectly into that natural space.   

The Stolkholm duo is billed to open for M83 on his spring US tour, for which the NYC show at Terminal 5 on May 10 sold out instantaneously.  M83's November set at Webster Hall was easily one of the best shows I saw in 2011, and a spring double header with I Break Horses right after Grad School finals end should set up for a celebration of epic scale.