Eden is a beautifully compelling collection of new songs from the unique and wonderful Me And My Two Horses. It’s been over a year since we reviewed the initial EP release Heartbeats Horror Horses, and it’s a pleasure to re-delve into the creative mind of the artist. In this case, however, the music has taken only a few of those familiar snippets from the past and fused them with something completely new and unpredictable.
Excluding the epic length and intensity of the final track, the EP emerges, evolves and ends in a fairly short space of time, leaving you feeling as if something huge just happened but that maybe you weren’t quite focused enough on first meeting to appreciate it. The great thing about this particular EP is that you can return to it again and again, to any one of these songs in fact, and on the one hand you get the beautiful leading vocal performance and melodies, and on the other hand you get the creatively explorative sounds and words behind all of it. You can lose yourself in the sound of song, or in the power of ideas and imagery and possibility. It’s a pretty magical combination.
The Forest has a beautiful musicality about it, the simplicity of the beat and the sound of the guitar riff, the structure – again, always thoughtfully arranged – and the artist’s beautifully honest and poetic portrayal of thoughts. This track, and much of the rest of the collection, makes a swift step from the gentle to the intense within a very short space of time. In contrast, Invisible Birds is a brilliant moment of power without weight, in between these somewhat heavier snippets of sound, and it’s well placed within the project so as to really make it shine as brightly as possible.
Secret Brother keeps things gentle from an instrumental perspective, but there is something very haunting about the Magnus Chord Organ sound and the vocal flow of this one that lingers in the air. Although there is a distinct thread throughout this project, these are five very individual pieces of music. To break the project down is to simply appreciate the value of each song in its own right.
The final few moments of closing track To My Youth leave you completely lost in the afterglow of the music. The passion in the performance is phenomenal, as is the fusion of cultures hinted at within the sound, and the development of the track itself – the clever use of structure, the freedom of expression – it’s the sort that holds you captive and keeps your attention locked in until long after it’s all slipped away.
The haunting repetition of Turn Up The Music and it’s gradual evolution into Chop Off My Head is insane; the performance, the music, the words themselves – everything works in unison to create this powerfully dramatic and unavoidable voice of terror. The Eden EP is one of a kind, the artist has the voice of a pop angel, yet the music and the songwriting take the form of something explicitly unique and free from the confines of modern pop entirely. It makes for a distinctive and remarkable listening experience.
Grab yourself one of the limited addition CD’s available with beautiful handmade serigraphy artwork at Big Cartel. You can also listen and Download the EP via Bandcamp. Find and follow Me And My Two Horses on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube & Instagram.
