Since their bewitching 2014 album ‘Cover Your Eyes’ Horse Party have continued to build their profile, play live and release singles. On this latest set of three new songs the title track ‘Paydirt’ starts with their recognisable sparse indie blues double guitar, with vocal from Ellie Langley coiling around before it all becomes a bit more boisterous, a wall of guitar crashes in and drives the hookline home. Shannon Hope lets loose on the drums and brings it all to a shattering conclusion.
At the moment I slightly prefer the second song ‘Animal’, an unrelenting ascending riff appears in various guises, mostly very noisy. Although there is a brief pause when ‘I’m animal, you’re animal’ is repeated and is definitely not referring to a zoological collection.
Final cut ‘October’ is slow and spare, but tension is maintained throughout and shows that the band’s skill as songwriters continues to develop. This EP is a very good sample of their ‘live’ sound; unprocessed, energetic and straight to the point.
cambridgemusicreviews 