Buzz Sound: Prize Horse

Photo by Adam Udenberg

Artist: Prize Horse, the trio of guitarist and vocalist Jake Beitel, bassist and vocalist Olivia Johnson, and drummer Jon Brenner 

Location: Minneapolis, MN

Buzz: It’s hard to get as excited about anything emerging out there where the sonic template works off familiar influences of ’90s grunge, post-hardcore as well as shoegaze now that we’re a decade removed from Title Fight’s Hyperview and the deluge of bands appropriating the same lot of sounds. Prize Horse challenge that notion, however, by slowing down its churn and swirling the formula. Instead of whelming the listener in a very loud eruption of dense, heavy prism of rock, they’re requesting your patience to hear through the reverb waves and static building in decibel form, pulling in queues from a slowcore state. It’s as though their collision starts out far away instead before arriving at the foot of your doorstep, moments from crushing down and burying you miles beneath with it. On the Minneapolis trio’s debut full-length, Under Sound, they pull you into their bottomless pit and make it all the more impossible to find your way back to surface in compliment to Jake Beitel’s poetic impressionisms of personal emotion. Still, sunlight lies visibly in the distance as a reminder of what was before everything came to collapse. It’s a submerging atmosphere that doesn’t necessarily want to break you — just leave you dangling in the atmosphere close enough to stay warm.

Sound: Past glories revisited through a delirium haze that resound louder and more vivid the deeper you get to rekindling a feeling with them.

Recommended: “Further From My Start”, “Rev”, and “Know Better” from their recently released debut album, Under Sound

February Tour Dates:

Prize Horse’s Under Sound is available now on New Morality Zine.