Horse Feathers – House With No Home

The Portland trio Horse Feathers is set to release their debut House With No Home on the exalted Kill Rock Stars label this September. It marks the band’s follow up to their 2006 self-titled debut on the plucky Portland indie label Lucky Madison.

At the time of this writing, there is precious lack of sincere information available on the group making this KRS debut. A scant bio provided by Lucky Madison reads only that group is a collaboration between Justin Ringle and Peter Broderick and that “the resulting sound is music.”

Horse Feathers is yet another of the hundreds of vainglorious assemblies that have developed across America over the last ten or so years that group stringed instruments with folk-driven, acoustic guitars and barely audible vocals – each of whom proudly come across as though they are the first do so. The resulting sound is exasperatingly tedious, boring music.

Heather Broderick provides vocal and string contributions on the upcoming release, a conventional record in a tiresome formula with a few rare moments of appeal.

Ringle and The Broderick’s whisper delicately croon and softly hum around staccato string parts and genuinely strong plucking.
“Curs in the Weeds,” “Rude to Rile” and “Albina” set a reverberating, scratchy agenda; a chippy, chirpy, frantic frolic.

“Helen” is a twinkly lullaby, but, like much of the record, so delicately cautious it simply does not resonate.

The record is capped by some clumsy ballads on an out of tune piano, “Father Reprise” and “Different Gray” are scarce melodic abstractions; pleasant, yes, but hardly ground breaking.

Ringle and Co.’s annunciation throughout House With No Home is at times so incomprehensible listeners may think they are signing in a language of their own invention, a kind idiosyncratic, Nick Drake-inspired Pig Latin.

House With No Home is scheduled for release on KRS on September 9th.