October 8 2008
Harts Horn – Begin to Exist
Harts Horn is a one man space rock band from Indiana churning out scores of wonderful self released discs straight from the id of a psych wild man.
With a loving touch of unrepentant prog abandon Begin to Exist is a little over forty minutes long and only has three songs. It’s great to see someone who is unafraid to turn their back on mad architectural constructs of epic songs.
The pulsing instrumental 18 plus minutes long track, "Am I?" starts things off with high speed drums, piano sweeps and squalls of deep space synths. This tune really makes a great jump off point to the rest of the disc.
Deep synth tonalities, sweet Robyn Hitchcock I Often Dream of Trains style jangle guitar and lilting 60's style vocals make up the basis of "Where Do You Go?" A tasty refresher after the prog assault of the prior tune kind of like a musical oasis.
Then it's back to prog psych atmospheres and orbits with "I Am." Some discordant drum smashing, rhythms, rolls, cymbal riding, and strange bursts of sound fill this tune up. It's a thrashing beast of an instrumental that smashes its way right up to the end.
This disc is a great exploration of the forgotten songscape stylings of the past and is unabashed and beautiful in giving the listeners ears a sonic sample of what music of this kind can do.
Guest review by Paul Angelosanto, an undead being who haunts the band Astro Al.
