The ever-mercurial, boundary-pushing UK rock quartet Sugar Horse have released their new single, 'Super Army Soldiers', taken from their thrilling new collaborative EP Waterloo Teeth. Featuring Adam Devonshire (IDLES) and Mike Vennart (Vennart / Biffy Clyro), you can watch the video for 'Super Army Soldiers' here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gF6Dd0lNrb4
Waterloo Teeth will be released 28th October via Small Pond, and features members of Heriot, Conjurer, IDLES, Biffy Clyro, and many more.
Pre-order Waterloo Teeth here: http://listen.smallpondrec.com/disco-loadout
Stream: http://listen.smallpondrec.com/super-army-soldiers
Of 'Super Army Soldiers', the band say: "Easily the most melodic song on the record, but still very much based around the idea of trying to take dronal music into some kind of pop sphere. Our only song to date with an actual old school guitar solo, courtesy of Mike Vennart."
"The song is a celebration of the limitations of art. Like many others, we are compelled to create. It’s what makes us feel human and helps to drown out the madness all around us. But where there is release, there is also constraint. We are held back by the walls of Western musical harmony, the structural norms of pop music and the ceiling of the English language. These limitations breed creativity, however. If you are forced into a corner, no matter how big, you find interesting ways to inhabit that corner."
IDLES' Adam Devonshire comments: "When your old housemate asks you to play over the top of his incredible band alongside a bunch of other musicians you love, you can't really say no, can you?! Long live Sugar Horse!!"
Full tracklisting:
1. Disco Loadout (ft. Debbie Gough, Heriot, vocals; Damien Sayell, Mclusky, vocals; Matt Loveridge, MXLX, cello)
2. Waterloo Teeth (ft. Dave Larkin, Black Peaks, bass; Will Gardner, Black Peaks, saxophone; Paul Tierney, Lonely Tourist, vocals)
3. Gutted (ft. Kate Davies, Pupil Slicer, vocals; Dan Nightingale, Conjurer, vocals/guitar; Brady Deeprose, Conjurer, vocals/guitar; Conor Marshall, Conjurer, vocals/guitar; Nuala Honan, vocals)
4. Super Army Soldiers (ft. Adam Devonshire, IDLES, bass; Mike Vennart, Oceansize/Biffy Clyro/Vennart, guitar; Connie Matthews, Wych Elm, vocals)
Waterloo Teeth is true demonstration of Sugar Horse's refusal to conform or sit still. A community-building, genre-hopping release, the EP sees Sugar Horse letting the good times roll. Recorded during the Christmas break at Small Pond studios, sleeping among the amps, the four-track record is the Bristol group's excuse to work with some of the coolest musicians on the planet.
Sugar Horse's most out-there music yet, Waterloo Teeth turns ideas on their head. Opening track and first single 'Disco Loadout' is anti-Sugar Horse - a band previously known for long, melodic songs, this song instead is as short and atonal as possible. In contrast track three, 'Gutted' is the everything everywhere at once song, from Shellac-style noise, to Sleep-esque doom, to Cocteau Twins melody and back.
It is apt that Waterloo Teeth is a celebration of the limitations of art. Humans are compelled to create, creation drowns out the madness arounds us as keeps us alive. Where there is release, there is constraint; where there is constraint, there is creativity. It is this circle of life that Sugar Horse thrive in - Waterloo Teeth is a beguiling and irresistible invitation to join the circle.
It's not for nothing that Sugar Horse have become known as a nonconformist band. Their previous EPs Druj and Drugs were acclaimed amalgams of doom, hardcore, stoner and punk, continued by acclaimed debut LP The Live Long After. A band who were due to tour with Black Peaks before the inevitable Covid disruption, and who have toured with Vennart and played ArcTanGent, Sugar Horse have received praise from Upset Magazine, Metal Hammer, Revolver and Kerrang!, among others.
Forming in 2015 as a trio in a flat in Bristol, Sugar Horse fully came into being in 2019 with the addition of Jake Healy on baritone guitar and keyboards. Seeking to break away from emerging trends in their scene, the band's emphasis on simplicity and down-tempo heft belies an impressive sense of self-awareness and maturity. In their own words: "I think the best art is formed when it's creators enforce rigid rules on themselves. Mondrian had geometry, Mark E Smith had his hatred for cigarette taxation and we have a complete disregard for urgency."
Stream the new album, The Live Long After, here: https://sugarhorse.bandcamp.com/album/the-live-long-after
Watch Sugar Horse live:
- 17th August 2022 – ArcTanGent Festival, Bristol
- 30th October 2022 – w/ Conjurer, Brighton
- 31st October 2022 – w/ Conjurer, Bristol
- 1st November 2022 – w/ Conjurer, Manchester
- 2nd November 2022 – w/ Conjurer, Glasgow
- 3rd November 2022 – w/ Conjurer, Leeds
- 4th November 2022 – w/ Conjurer, London
- 11th November 2022 – w/ Godflesh, Dublin
- 12th November 2022 – w/ Godflesh, Belfast