The monolithically heavy UK quartet Sugar Horse have signed with Pelagic Records, and announced a February 2024 tour supporting labelmates LLNN.
Dates as follows:
- Feb 03: UK, London Boston Music Room
- Feb 04: FR, Paris Glazart
- Feb 05: CH, Lucerne Sedel
- Feb 06: AT, Vienna Chelsea
- Feb 07: PL, Krakow Kamienna12
- Feb 08: PL, Warsaw Hydrozagadka
- Feb 09: PL, Wroclaw Lacznik
- Feb 10: CZ, Prague Kasarna Karlin
- Feb 11: DE, Berlin Urban Spree
The news follows the release of the Bristolians' mighty new EP Truth Or Consequences, New Mexico (3rd November, Fat Dracula Records/distributed by Metal Blade Records in US).
Order and stream Truth Or Consequences, New Mexico here: https://li.sten.to/Consequences
An epic achievement, Truth... is, in signature Sugar Horse style, one single long song: a meditation and exploration of everything the note A has to offer.
Sugar Horse comment on the new single: "This section kind of feels like stepping into the eye of a particularly lengthy storm. It’s a short reprieve where we break everything down before climbing back up that staircase again. Lyrically it describes the catharsis of art. You can take in any pain, hurt and bullshit from day to day like, then use it to generate something positive and beautiful. There’s something I find unbelievably beautiful in that kind of genesis. It’s probably the closest I come to any kind of religious thought. You take hell and turn it into heaven."
Telling the story of Truth Or Consequences, New Mexico, the band state: "It’s frequently been difficult for us, as a band, to limit ourselves to “normal” pop song lengths and structures….as evidenced in pretty much all of our releases to date. From time to time we feel the need to loose the ropes that bind us and let our Long & Tedious flag fly freely. Truth Or Consequences, New Mexico is the result of said untethering.
"We’ve always found the idea of exploring a single note over long stretches of time interesting and this song is that idea taken to an extreme logical conclusion. It’s an exploration of the note A in all its possible variations."
Sugar Horse have recently toured with post-rock luminaries 65daysofstatic across Europe, as well as dates with Pianos Become The Teeth, Liturgy, Chat Pile and an appearance at ArcTanGent festival.
A lot of people take the name Sugar Horse to be a drug reference - perhaps fitting for a band that sound like the last moments of a three-day binge. Darting wildly between dark/light, pain/bliss, sacred/profane, Sugar Horse are unpredictable and unrestrained.
Formed in what is now considered to be the utopian dreamscape of 2015, the band grew slowly at first. Far from fully formed, but steadily gaining limbs, heads and vital organs. Finally, 2019’s DRUJ followed swiftly by 2020’s DRUGS saw them hit on a relentless stride of eclectic releases that simultaneously confused and entranced audiences.
2021 saw the band encamp in a former Lutheran church to record their debut album, The Live Long After, releasing it via Brighton’s own Small Pond Records. Publications such as The Quietus describing the record as “shift[ing] dispositions fluidly, taking elements of extreme aggression alongside floaty Post-Metal” and Echoes & Dust calling it “a monumental achievement”. The album took every disparate element that Sugar Horse previously employed and amplified them, while juxtaposing each next to each other, with genuinely unpredictable and exciting consequences.
2022 saw no relent from the band’s fast paced release schedule, as they put out an anthemic shoegaze single in 'Pictures Of Dogs Having Sex', followed swiftly by their collaborative Waterloo Teeth EP. A release that paired Sugar Horse’s terrifying eclecticism with guest appearances from twelve other artists in just four short(ish) songs. Each artist coming from a different area of the modern British music scene, whether that be world conquering post-punk bass lines from IDLES’ Adam Devonshire, heavy titans Conjurer and Pupil Slicer’s throat crippling wails, or a shredding guitar solo from Biffy Clyro/Oceansize axe wielder Mike Vennart. The EP packs in an album’s worth of genre mutilating twists and turns into just 25 minutes of music.