Tag: Tangled Horns

Top 25 albums of 2024: #’s 15 – 11

Who’s in my top 15 albums of 2024? A lot of groovy people. Read on!

#15: Tangled Horns – Lighter

This post-punk rager came out of nowhere for me. I hadn’t heard them before a press release about them drifted my way, and I was sold upon hearing Lighter for the first time.

#14: Brijean – Macro

It’s another delightful album from them. The whole thing is full of beach-ready synths, club tracks, Italo Disco flavor, and lovely vocals.

#13: Tombstones in Their Eyes – Asylum Harbour

This is a sweet psychedelic record that incorporates a bit of shoegaze here and there and was another great discovery for me in 2024.

#12: Karkara – All Is Dust

You can call these Toulouse psych-rockers the French version of King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard. They probably won’t mind. Their musicianship is damn impressive and their riffs can be as heavy as any doom band you like.

#11: Radondo – Deluge EP

Synthwave plus creepy imagery? Sounds good to me. This EP blends darker synths with some dancefloor beats and makes a great late night jam ready for everything from an afterparty to trying to sneak an alien being to the beach so he can board his underwater ship.

We’re almost to the top ten! Come back tomorrow for more!

Keep your mind open.

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Review: Tangled Horns – Lighter

Lighter, the new album by Belgian rockers Tangled Horns, was written and recorded during the pandemic – a time when the band, like most of us, were separated from each other and looking for ways to cope with confusion, misinformation, loneliness, empty toilet paper shelves, and impermanence. It turns out that Light would be, according to the band’s Bandcamp page for the album, “their most personal and introspective work—a coping album born from the unique circumstances.”

One of their coping mechanisms was, and I’m guessing still is, brain-shredding rock. The album opens with Tim Van de Plas telling us “I fell into a deep slumber in the dark and when I woke up I felt lighter.”, and then they launch into “April Fire” – a song chock-full of hard-hitting guitar riffs and a bass line from Raf Vorsselmans that gets your attention right away. “I’m tired of dragging my feet,” Van de Plas sings. Good heavens, weren’t we all in 2021?

“Pig” takes a swing, and connects hard, at rich elitists taking and not giving, or at least not replenishing what they’ve taken from neighborhoods and the Earth. The roaring, squealing guitars from Stef Kustermans and Dennis Van Der Auwera are like buzzing hornets you can’t escape. “Sleeping Dogs” has a bit of a proto-metal sound to it, and a good chunk of menace.

Kris Martens‘ drums on “Suspended Animation” remind me of early Genesis stuff by Phil Collins, and the rest of the song has a neat mix of prog and punk. Van de Plas’ vocals on it have some Bad Religion-like stylings, and his opening wail on “No More Mistakes” is raw fury backed with rough garage-blues guitars. The song builds to a wild frenzy that’s a bit jolting. “Mug,” I’m sure, causes a mosh pit to erupt whenever and wherever it’s played…so be careful where you blast it, or just blast it anywhere and enjoy the chaos.

“Here’s to us and all the rest. I guess we did our best,” Van de Plas sings on the heavy-hitting drinking song “Pissing in the Wind.” “Tick” is a wild, fast ride that’s just under two minutes and packs the power of a song four times longer into it. “Nothing Everything” closes the album with heavy psych riffs, suitable for journeys through deserts or infinite space.

Lighter is as heavy as they come, but it’s designed to elevate us all.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Polder Records!]