The Healing Power of Horses – i wait, i sink
The Healing Power of Horses are a Cambridge duo who have signed to section1, the LA-based sister label to Partisan Records (Blonde Redhead, King Princess, RIP Magic), and “i wait, i sink” is their debut single. Before this they had one tape recording made with Glasgow DIY label No Soap; now they’ve got 7,777 wav files on an SSD, and the step up in production is audible.
The track was recorded during what they describe as “an unconscious and heady evening spent blowing up audio interfaces and blowing through vapes”, and it sounds like exactly that: rattling percussion, warped electronics, and a structure that lurches between claustrophobic and expansive before detonating into distorted noise. Trip-hop is the obvious reference point, with something of the brooding menace of Jet Blonde or pearl2 in the low-end rumble, but it also has its own restless logic. The song threatens to collapse under its weight several times and then doesn’t, which is most of the interest.
The lyrics circle obsession and waiting, with lines about flashing forward to “yr devilish arms” and a closing observation that “sometimes the circle isn’t round”. It’s elliptical writing that fits the production’s own refusal to resolve cleanly. What gets me is how much the track earns its controlled chaos: it’s not noise for noise’s sake, there’s actual structure underneath it.
The band is self-described as “awfully pallid and bug-eyed and knock-kneed” from too much attic time, and the press notes are deliberately oblique and funny. Whether that’s posture or personality, “i wait, i sink” is a confident enough debut that it doesn’t need the mythology to hold up.
Tour Dates Europe:
- May 12 – London, UK – Club Cheek (supporting Sword II)
- May 13 – Brighton, UK – The Great Escape
- June 11 – London, UK – Club Cheek (section1 & Perfectly Imperfect night, supporting RIP Magic)
- August 21 – Brecon Beacons, Wales – Green Man Festival (Rising stage)
