Horse Jumper of Love – Disaster Trick

There's a crack of hope that permeates Disaster Trick, the first Horse Jumper of Love record that feels like a band stepping out of its own shadow

Album Review by Tony Inglis | 13 Aug 2024
  • Horse Jumper of Love – Disaster Trick
Album title: Disaster Trick
Artist: Horse Jumper of Love
Label: Run For Cover
Release date: 16 Aug

In 1964, queer, atheist, communist Pier Paolo Pasolini made a near-faithful transposition of the Gospel of St. Matthew to film. From the outside, these things don’t seem to add up. On Horse Jumper of Love's new record, the Italian artist served as a way in for frontman Dimitri Giannopoulos, observing: “In order to make something good, you have to destroy a belief in some way.” 

Horse Jumper... are at the forefront of the equine-band-name to slowcore pipeline. The trio can play gloriously slow – on Wait By The Stairs, John Margaris and James Doran’s rhythm section is in beautiful, lumbering lockstep. On Disaster Trick, in keeping with Pasolini’s influence, they tend towards melancholy in volume – a break from last year’s Heartbreak Rules – guitars seared to melting point, in the lineage of Hum and Bedhead. It’s the first Horse Jumper... record that feels like a band stepping out of its own shadow. 

Giannopoulos’ writing here has a dark intensity. But by closer Nude Descending, he has opened up to softness: 'I felt like needing your embrace'. The guitars are suddenly frolicking and playful. It’s that crack of hope that permeates the best slowcore.

Listen to: Snow Angel, Lip Reader, Curtain

http://horsejumperoflove.bandcamp.com