Horse
Horse

THE REVIEW

And here I am again. Every now and then I pop up from nowhere, as if a hidden entity calls me from another dimension. I hope you remember me... I am BeatBoy, that strange guy (or maybe not, who knows?), crazy (or sick?) for Music and the general Culture of the '60s and '70s. And this time I have been called by a dark band from the early '70s; the Horse.

The Horse comes from England, and for almost 40 years now, they've had only one eponymous album to their name. An album that I wouldn't call Prog, but not even too much Hard Rock, as the few web pages dedicated to it claim. I could venture to say that "Horse" is a small cauldron containing the demonic intents of the contemporaries and better-known Black Widow, a dirty and fascinating sound like Cream, a guitar that at times could remind of a certain Jimi Hendrix; in short, my dear friends, there's a bit of everything, but beware, despite these small inspirations from more famous colleagues of the period, "Horse" turns out to be a fairly personal record.

Before telling you a bit about the album, I would like to introduce you to who is in the saddle; let me start by saying that not much is known about this band and the related record, so I will limit myself to writing what I know: at the microphone, we find Adrian Hawkins, on guitar Rod Roach, on bass Colin Standring and on drums Rick Parnell. The latter, without a doubt (at least for me), is the best-known: that is Ric Parnell was also the drummer for Vincent Crane's Atomic Rooster. There's an anecdote about this semi-unknown character: those who know Atomic Rooster well are certainly aware that the keyboardist Vincent Crane has always suffered from severe depression, which led to his suicide on February 14, 1989, but before that, Vincent's instability often led him to change some members of his band (sometimes even all the members). Between 1972 and 1973, I don't remember precisely, Atomic Rooster was in Italy, at a certain point Vincent loaded the instruments and left with the van leaving the rest of the band on foot. The others were furious, but not too much, while Ric Parnell took it so badly that he stayed in Italy, and he first played for Ibis, that is half of the members of New Trolls and later for Nova, that is a quarter of the members of Osanna. In short, I told you this little story to say that our Ric played with two of our Prog bands! I simply didn't want to say it just like that, randomly!

But now let's get back to the Horse.

Howls, the shrill sound of chains, drums, and guitar suddenly break in to drag into a psychedelic Hard Rock; this is how "The Sacrifice" introduces itself, an extraordinary opening for the album, where pieces of such energetic caliber we will rarely meet again during listening. Of a certain effect and in line with the song are the verses of a mad horse that our singer proposes with much commitment. Without a second of rest for us and for the listener, "See The People Creeping Round" starts, in my opinion one of the highest peaks of "Horse"; dark and fairy tale-like guitar arpeggio, a well-distinct and dramatic voice in tune with the dark and hopeful atmosphere of the song. A masterpiece, the masterpiece of the Horse. With "And I Loved You" we enter fairly relaxed and acoustic tones, still on excellent levels of vocal drama within the musical context, with the acoustic guitar weaving sweet but tense notes, with the electric guitar in the background trying to soothe them. "Freedom Rider" is in good, but not perfect, cohesion with the three previous pieces. A distinct sepulchral Hard Rock with a high rate of dark atmosphere. "Lost Control" is perhaps the piece that refers to the psychedelic Rock of Cream, a rather short piece but of remarkable impact, especially guitar-wise. It is followed by the psychedelic garage of "To Greet The Sun", a fairly acid piece with a touch of sweetness and an explosive finale with a vocal solo. "The Journey" might give the impression of being a delicate piece, with a flute leading the listener, but this will only be the beginning because there will then be a guitar explosion not much different from the previous piece. In the delicate parts with the flute, "The Journey" could take on symphonic features, which remind me a bit, but not too much, of "I Talk To The Wind" by King Crimson. Moreover, the piece is extremely short. "Heat Of The Summer" is a charming waltz that the voice refers to Black Widow, also noteworthy is the genuine acoustic interlude. "Gypsy Queen" in my opinion doesn't have much to add to what we have listened to so far, except for a precision in changes of rhythm and atmosphere, which will then condense into an acidic blues like Jimi Hendrix. The album closes, and in a gentle and calm manner, with "Step Out Of Line"; still of extremely good levels the voice and the general atmosphere that blends well with the rest of the record; a record that can sometimes surprise sometimes not, maybe it depends on what state of mind you listen to it.

Too bad (as for the vast majority of bands of the time) that after this album the Horse disappeared into thin air, just as they arrived.