text: Winston Hightower, “Insubordination Guidelines” (Ok Data/Perennial Data)
  Winston Hytwr collects 12 songs from obscure Columbus, Ohio lo-fi tune machine Winston Hightower. It makes every kind of sense that Olympia’s Ok Data would champion this hard-working bed room tunesmith, who since 2015 has been toiling in relative obscurity within the neighborhood of considered one of his most evident inspirations—Guided by Voices. It additionally figures that Hightower has collaborated with different Ohio luminaries reminiscent of Ron Home (Thomas Jefferson Slave Flats) and members of Slant 6 and Occasions New Viking.
  Born in 1993, Hightower has been dubbed “the Black R. Stevie Moore,” and if that appellation will entice extra ears to his music, then let’s boldface it and put it close to the highest of his bio. As a result of Winston has plain expertise, and if there’s any justice, he’ll change into significantly better recognized within the close to future and can shed the necessity for such comparisons.
  “Hip Swayer” instantly conveys Hightower’s standing as a lo-fi bed room rock mensch. His catchy, unobvious melodies and his earnest, unslick vocals solid him as a Robert Pollard acolyte, sure, however Winston’s way more of an unpolished unfastened cannon at this level in his profession. When Hightower veers into tender-ballad mode, as on “A Second Like This,” “Hue Nostril,” and “TF,” he will increase the oddity issue by tuning his guitar weirdly and discovering the strangest tones on his synth. “TF” truly feels like a sideways homage to David Bowie’s “Ashes to Ashes,” albeit propelled by an off-the-cuff, midtempo disco rhythm.
  “Blind Pig” is a wonderful specimen of slacker funk, with a peculiar, chintzy synth motif warbling via it. In the meantime, “O N O”‘s a cavernous rock near-instrumental that flaunts thrilling dynamics and a few of Hightower’s most incisive guitar enjoying. The longest tune right here at 2:48, “Insubordination Guidelines” options the declamatory vocals and wobbly legged dub-rock of early-’80s Tough Commerce post-punks reminiscent of Raincoats and Glaxo Infants. That is rarefied territory, and Hightower treads it with panache. Probably the most ebullient Hightower minimize is “Wainbow,” whose archetypal Ok Data cuteness will get distilled into dubby, midtempo rock. It is so winsomely askew, you may’t assist getting hooked inside seconds.
  Horse Lords, “Truthers” (RVNG Intl.)
  For eight years now, I have been telling those that Horse Lords have reigned among the many best dwell performers in underground rock. For the uninitiated, the brand new As It Occurred: Horse Lords Stay gives a glimpse into the mesmerizing cyclone that may be a Horse Lords present. And, fortuitously, Seattle’s Vera Venture is internet hosting the Baltimore/Berlin quartet Horse Lords on July 2.
  On this weblog in 2022, I wrote, “Horse Lords have mastered the advantageous artwork of hypnosis via manic repetition of their epic compositions, however providing slight variations in riffs and intensities to keep up a vibrant edge. It will be simple to plunge into monotony with this method, however Horse Lords—Max Eilbacher, Andrew Bernstein, Owen Gardner, and Sam Haberman—savvily alter their components and forge fascinating microtonal textures to keep away from stasis.” All of that applies to this dwell album, which corrals HL songs relationship again to 2014’s Hidden Cities.
  Talking of Hidden Cities, its tune “Macaw” epitomizes Horse Lords’ potential to search out many ingenious methods to show abrasive riffs into everlasting mantras; their m.o. is minimalism of maximal depth, wherein exhaustion appears like ecstasy. “Could Brigade” from 2022’s Comradely Objects strikes with the rectangular, staccato propulsion of late-period Captain Beefheart and UK post-punk jazzers Blurt; the time signature appears to be in 7/4 or another ungainly meter. Its coda of madcap digital tingles and wind-tunnel whooshes present that Horse Lords can convey the aspect of shock, too.
  The Interventions monitor “Bending to the Lash” makes you perceive how pleasurable it’s to be wound up tight as a motherfucker in a churning rhythm whereas guitar chords and sax melismas cycle and wire round one another with ever extra depth. Hardly ever is trance music this bruising. One other Comradely Objects minimize, “Zero-Diploma Machine,” begins with Eilbacher’s weird, insectoid electronics, which leads right into a lumbering approximation of King Crimson’s early-’80s gamelan rock. Midway in, any person says, “To be continued,” after which the group bust out some roiling African desert rock, spiked with triumphant saxophone by Bernstein.
  As It Occurred peaks on “Truthers,” a scorcher of Saharan freak rock with a potent sting in its tail. It exemplifies Horse Lords’ manic depth, intricate instrumental interaction, and the transcendent euphoria they induce. Regardless that you are wrung out from the monitor’s warmth and velocity, you by no means need it to finish.
  However do not simply take my phrase for it. Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy’s additionally an enormous Horse Lords fan. He informed Stereogum: “I am mesmerized by how unattainable their music appears… It isn’t a lot you see anymore,… an actual band forging a super-individual language.” Dad-rock-icon validation!
  Horse Lords carry out Friday July 2 at The Vera Venture, 7:00 pm, $15 adv/$18 DOS, all ages.