Holed up in their Kingston, NY, hideout, the Rider/Horse gang is growing. What began as a duo delivering stripped-down post-punk screeds has now evolved into a full-blown rock band with the addition of Zoots Houston on pedal steel (who also appeared on Feed ‘Em Salt & Select Trials) and Jared Ashdown on bass. Their latest for ever/never, Matted, finds Rider/Horse as unrelenting as ever. Singer/guitarist Corey Plump’s sung-spoke shouts (honed during his Spray Paint days) remain an inimitable totem of the contemporary underground, working as both blunt confessionals and clarion calls for the terminally frustrated. And while the band’s minimalist industrial clatter is still its sonic foundation, the strains of mutant funk that could always be picked out of the junkyard play a slightly larger role, with Ashdown’s bass and Chris Turco’s drums combining for roaring grooves on tracks such as “Run the Rabbit” and “Empty Boxes.”
There has always been something a little mysterious and foreboding about the Rider/Horse sound, as if a shadowy menace follows them from town to town. On Matted, this force has been harnessed and added to the arsenal, as ghostly shrieks of electronic noise haunt nearly every track and reach an apex on the pulsing electronic dust storm that is “Toen.” If one ever contemplated how an outfit like Rider/Horse might grow and develop, well, Matted is your answer. Rider/Horse is locked in and ready to do crimes, producing what is certainly their most dense and fully realized album yet. These guys are nowhere near the end of the trail, so sign up for the next raid. - Nate K. (WFMU)