Photo by Ruby Faye

The young-yet-wise Horsegirl proved themselves to be fast learners of indie rock’s coolest classics in their most essential sense with their 2022 breakthrough debut, Versions of Modern Performance. It was an album that bared fingerprints of the ’90s scenes’ most singular and seminal noisemakers while adapting its blueprint for a next generation through their own point of view on today’s DIY tenets and channeling exploratory instincts into corners where those discoveries lead you somewhere undiscovered. This continues to serve Nora Cheng, Penelope Lowenstein, and Gigi Reece’s raw potential maximally even in minimalism on “2468”, the lead single from the Chicago trio’s highly anticipated sophomore follow-up, Phonetics On and On. Recorded with a fellow cultivator of the avant-garde in Cate Lebon, experimentation continues pushing Horsegirl into their own beyond of art-minded indie rock. It amounts to an exercise in deconstructing, reconstructing, and repeating the process until something uniquely their own is created. Crash-course guitar rock gives way to weaving punky alt-country by striking electric violin against percussive steel in motorik speed. It’s like throwing numbers at the wall until it all computes. No matter which way you add, subtract, divide or multiply this equation, Horsegirl’s math checks out.

Directed by: Eliza Barry Callahan

Horsegirl’s Phonetics On and On will be released February 14th on Matador Records.