A rising psych-rock act from Somerville, MA, We Are Space Horses deliver a strong sound throughout their new album Apologia. Their own description of the varied, melodic rock sound is a good one: “if Pink Floyd was influenced by Tool and not the other way around.” Further inspirations include Swans and Sigur Rós, making for an atmospheric production alongside themes of prevailing through trauma, addiction, loss, and other challenges.
A warm crackling guides to comfortingly crisp acoustics on the opening “To Let Go…Absolutely.” Wordless vocals and ascending guitars traverse into a “time to change,” cathartic outpouring. Aspirational soul-searching lyrics convey a sense of waiting and difficult goodbyes, set beautifully alongside a spacey folk composure. Twangy guitars enter thereafter as the vocals maintain their soaring quality; the track compels in both its lusher folk and soaring vocal entries.
“Haunt” is exemplary of the project’s harder-rocking vigor. Bluesy guitar snarls and a debonair bass line converge engrossingly, building into blistering waves of guitar distortion. “God is a Ghost” follows with a greater psych-rock embrace, led predominantly by guitars that ascend from lushly intriguing beginnings into a vocal-less second half with compelling tonal fervency.
Epic finale “Justification To Build A Monument” impresses throughout its 9+ minutes, spanning from elongated guitar crawls to dreamy vocal immersion and an anthemic psych-rock venturing to close it out; it’s an apt closer to the album, enjoyably representing its eclectic tonal directions and hypnotic psych-rock allure.
—
“Haunt” and other tracks featured this month can be streamed on the updating Obscure Sound’s ‘Emerging Singles’ Spotify playlist.
We discovered this release via MusoSoup, as part of the artist’s promotional campaign.
