Technology Versus Horse: Potential Pleasure Device (2011)

US act TECHNOLOGY VS HORSE have been around for around a decade now, with four full albums to their name. "Potential Pleasure Device" is the most recent of their efforts, and was self-released as a digital production in 2011.

In style these five musicians explore a kind of alternative rock on this album, with a steady backbeat as the core foundation throughout, staccato guitar textures with occasional distorted, light-toned details and circulating soloing parts as the main flavour. Organs is the main keyboard instrument of choice for supplemental motifs, with occasional use of swirling futuristic sounds. Arrangements and production tend to be subtly lo-fi in sound, and the songs and themes tend to have an orientation towards the dramatic. With the talents of giant frontman Mike adding a certain emphasis to the latter.

And at best this is an intriguing outfit. Their songs can be fairly refined, or at least stretching a bit outside of the confinements one generally will envision when dealing with a band within the indie/alternative scene. For me the most enthralling experience on this occasion comes at the very end, with the creation They'll Kill Us. Initially a nervously echoing, light-toned guitar motif circulating beneath Mike's expressive vocals, nicely backed by organ bursts and steady rhythms, developing into a more majestic, compact theme sporting richly flavoured exotic sounding guitar soloing and organ in majestic combination with a darker toned rumbling bass guitar fleshing out the soundscape, and finally ending up in a harder, darker sequence with heavy distorted bass as an ominous and brooding undercurrent beneath a compact, pace-filled riff construction with more of a punk orientation to it. With occasional noise inserts to boot.

Most of the other songs appear to be of a less sophisticated nature however, and as far as those efforts go it's more of a question of pace and momentum carrying the songs and how well the guitar and keyboards manage to supply intriguing details. The opening efforts works fairly well in doing so, while the least interesting efforts to my ears take up the middle part of the CD. Subtly differences in construction aside, all the songs utilize the subtle differences and partially overlapping harmonics of vocals, keyboards and guitars to form the dominating parts of the themes explored. At one extreme with a slight folk orientation as on Baba Yaga, another represented with the metal and punk-tinged end sequence on aforementioned They'll Kill Us. There's even room for dampened, plucked rhythm guitars in a manner Pink Floyd fans would approve of on One Long Tunnel, but here utilized in a song that doesn't incorporate too many additional details one might associate with that particular band.

Their most straightforward efforts should find good favour amongst a younger audience, with whacky efforts like Idiot and She's My Robot pieces I suspect many teenagers will feel compelled to like. Older listeners may find this album to be a bit too young at heart at times however, with tracks like Electric Eels and They'll Kill Us as the ones I suspect might have a broader appeal for an older audience.

My rating: 60/100


Track list:
1. Electric Eels 4:04
2. Teenage Funk 4:22
3. White Girls 3:37
4. New Lily Pads 5:19
5. She's My Robot 3:36
6. Terrorkeets 2:36
7. Baba Yaga 3:33
8. Idiot 2:22
9. One Long Tunnel 6:24
10. Millions of Songs 0:14
11. They'll Kill Us 7:14