Aubade, the debut album from mysterious Brooklyn outfit Pure Horsehair, was one of my favorite albums of 2006 (look, proof!). I was very excited when they allowed me to feature Ryan Smith’s gorgeously simple video for their song “The Sun Is the Source” on the Ball of Wax DVD, but haven’t heard a peep from them since then, and when my e-mails to them started bouncing, I assumed the worst: that singer/songwriter Garrett Devoe and company had parted ways, or that Garrett had just stopped making music altogether.
Today my fears were allayed with a brief message from Garrett, which mentioned a new batch of recordings posted on Bandcamp. Of course I had to run right over and listen, which is what I’m doing right now. Heap or Hurries – a collection of “various recordings 2005-2010” contains everything I loved about Aubade: The sleepy, floating song structures; the minimal, spartan instrumentation; the intricate guitarwork; and Devoe’s soft, soulful, careworn voice laid over it all. This isn’t a proper “album review,” since I haven’t even finished listening to the whole thing, but I really just wanted to take the opportunity to call your attention to the resurrection of this terrific band. Go listen now!
Not only can you hear the new recordings mentioned above, but the albums Aubade and You Can Burn a Corpse But You Can’t Kill a Ghost (apparently released in 2008 – I had no idea!) are also available for streaming in full or purchasing at a very reasonable price. If you haven’t heard Pure Horsehair before, this is a great way to get up to speed. And if you have, you’re probably already over there and not even reading this.
While we’re on the subject, and in case you don’t feel like navigating away from this page for some reason, here’s that video for “The Sun Is the Source.” Enjoy!
Thanks for introducing me to this band– putting them on my podcast coming out next week!
Nice! Glad to hear it, Shani.