Koch Records
2005
The Mechanical Hand
About This Album
R. Borlax, Horse the Band's 2003 debut, was a splintered and explosive fete to Nintendo Power Glove fanaticism powered by raucous post-hardcore. Dubbed "Nintendocore" by the California band, the album didn't always work. It wasn't purely realized enough to match the wiry post-rock video game themes rocked by the Advantage, and its grabs at metal, hardcore, and basic noise were too disjointed. Were listeners supposed to laugh, or rock out? Well, 2005's Mechanical Hand fine-tunes Horse the Band's entire operation. Erik Engstrom's keyboard still guides these songs, and often recalls the mechanistic, gawky robot feel of '80s video game music. But Engstrom and Horse the Band recall the 1980s in general, too. "Manateen" is incredible. It starts out by ripping off the same tubular Duran Duran groove that's responsible for the Killers, but shifts garishly into an angular post-hardcore screech, like a noisier version of what Fugazi were doing at decade's end. Horse aren't finished. "Manateen" goes on to crash soft synth melodies into righteous hardcore, and despite these jarring parts and sounds, Mechanical Hand never sounds as fragmented as R.
Track List (try tracks 2,3,4,5 and 9)

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