Release Date: Jun 3, 2022
Genre(s): Pop/Rock
Record label: Matador
Music Critic Score
How the Music Critic Score works
Buy Versions of Modern Performance from Amazon
Horsegirl have crafted a multifaceted world around their music. It's a world of cryptic zines and primitive, hand-painted merch; of lo-fi music videos in which an antiquated overhead projector strewed with buttons and scraps of paper is the conduit for an affecting tale of love adrift. The band are the main characters at the centre of this Horseworld yet remain one step removed from it, seemingly viewing from afar.
Horsegirl's debut album more than delivers on the promise of the trio's early singles, which sound more like rough sketches in comparison to Versions of Modern Performance's fleshed out sound. The formula of Penelope Lowenstein and Nora Cheng's shared duties on vocals and guitar along with Gigi Reece's insistent beat is a winning one. And adding equal helpings of fuzzed-out noise alongside foolproof melodies ups the ante further.
Chicago's thriving underage DIY scene, Horsegirl are barely out of school but belie their young years on Versions Of Modern Performance, a layered, atmospheric, darkly playful headrush of a first offering. Their basement-dwelling writing process adds a scuzziness to the strong post-punk/early 90s ….
is available now