Horseback is Jenks Miller: vocal, electric guitar, piano, bass, lap steel, ebow, keyboard, synthesizer, tanpura, shruti box, drums, percussion, processing, fuzz fx.
... and may include: Heather McEntire: vocal; Aaron Smithers: bass, French horn; Jon Mackey: laptop computer; Scott Endres: guitar; John Crouch: drums; Bradley Cook: bass, laptop computer; Joe Westerlund: drums, percussion; Phil Cook: melodica; Dave Cantwell: drums, percussion; Crowmeat Bob: sax, clarinet; James Wallace: drums, organ; Bryce Eiman: electronics.
Influences
John Coltrane, Skullflower (Sunroof!, Hototogisu, Mirag, etc.), Tony Conrad, Phil Niblock, The Hafler Trio, Brian Wilson, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Thrones, Richard Youngs, Loren MazzaCane Connors, John Fahey, Derek Bailey, Sunny Murray, My Bloody Valentine, Gate, The Dead C, Hermann Nitsch, King Tubby, Kevin Drumm, Davis Redford Triad, Daniel Higgs, Lungfish, This Heat, Alastair Galbraith, Jack Rose, Pelt, Merzbow, Keith Fullerton Whitman, Paul Flaherty, Chris Corsano, Nurse with Wound, Keiji Haino, Corrupted, Neu!, Kraftwerk, Philip Glass (Music in Twelve Parts!), Junior Kimbrough, Current 93, Antony, Daniel Menche, Throbbing Gristle, Suicide, Spacemen 3, Pauline Oliveros, Aaron Dilloway, Wolf Eyes, The Allman Brothers Band, David Axelrod, Andrew Chalk, Mirror, Yellow Swans, Fennesz, Zeena Parkins, SunnO))), Khanate, Amps for Christ, Birchville Cat Motel, Black Boned Angel, The Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic Ensemble, Peter Brotzmann, Richard Pinhas, Bishop Perry Tillis, Attila Csihar, San Agustin, Black Forest/Black Sea, Black Sabbath, Can, Faust, Sleep, Om, Mouthus, Keith Hudson, Scientist, Glenn Branca (Gloria!), Today Is the Day, George Harrison, Phil Spector, Captain Beefheart, Group Doueh, Blind Willie Johnson, Mark Hollis, Talk Talk, Don Cherry, The Fall, Codeine, Stereolab, Grouper, Roy Montgomery, Chrome/Helios Creed, Prurient, Gastr Del Sol, Tetuzi Akiyama, The Necks, William Basinski, Max Roach, Ya Ho Wha/Father Yod, Galaxie500, Earth, Vibracathedral Orchestra, Stars of the Lid, The Dead Texan, Astral Social Club, William Hooker, Toshimaru Nakamura, Steffen Basho-Junghans, Henryk Górecki, Neil Young, John Cale, Lou Reed, The Velvet Underground, Nico, KK Null, Mindflayer, R.L. Burnside, Bruce Springsteen, Karp, Cavity, Jessica Ryland, Can't, Kites, Jon Gibson, Univers Zero, Jesu, Hair Police, Henry Kaiser, Peter Gabriel, Yeasayer, Hassan Hakmoun, Orthrelm, Spiral Joy Band, The Red Krayola, Makoto Kawabata, Acid Mothers Temple, Silver Apples, Flower Travellin' Band, Wovenhand, Electric Wizard, Killing Joke, Greater than One, Mimir, Pedestrian Deposit, Sir Richard Bishop, Simon Wickham-Smith, Morton Feldman, Tom Carter, Christina Carter, Charalambides, Robert Horton, Lightning Bolt, Lee "Scratch" Perry, Georges Bataille, Joseph Campbell, Magma, Koenjihyakkei, Ruins, Unstable Ensemble, Lichens, Bardo Pond, Carlos Giffoni, Discharge, Six Organs of Admittance, Television, Wilderness, Burning Star Core, Lasse Marhaug, Gregory Isaacs, Ghost, Patti Smith, Comus, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Shearwater, Greg Malcolm, Swans, Angels of Light, Rhys Chatham + Essentialist, Coil, Black Mayonnaise, LSD March, Dirty Three, Mike Tamburo + The Crowned Eternal, and black metal drone a la Burzum, Darkthrone, Ildjarn, Beherit, Blasphemy, Hellhammer, Von, Archgoat, Immortal, Absu, Profanatica, Havohej, Black Witchery, Emperor, Celtic Frost, Satyricon, Mutiilation, Thralldom, Ulver, Gorgoroth, Leviathan, Lurker of Chalice, Drudkh, Akitsa, Ash Pool, Proclamation, Forest, Mayhem, Enslaved, Wolves in the Throne Room, Krallice, Xasthur, etc.
"That which causes us to create is our true father and
mother; we create in our own image, which is theirs.
Let us create therefore without fear, for we can
create nothing that is not GOD." 21 (KA)
- Aleister Crowley, The Book of Lies
"If I accept the fact that a god is absolute and beyond all human experiences, he leaves me cold. I do not affect him, nor does he affect me. But if I know that a god is a powerful impulse in my soul, at once I must concern myself with him, for then he can become important … like everything belonging to the sphere of reality."
• Horseback "The Invisible Mountain" LP (Aurora Borealis 2009)
• Jenks Miller "Zen Automata, Vol 1: V" CDR (Small Doses 2009)
• Horseback "MILH IHVH" 7" (Turgid Animal 2009)
• Horseback "The Invisible Mountain" CD (Utech Records 2009)
• Jenks Miller "Approaching the Invisible Mountain" CD (HFQ/NAFH 2008)
• Horseback "Impale Golden Live" CDR (HFQ 2007)
• Horseback "Impale Golden Horn" CD (HFQ/Burly Time 2007)
The Invisible Mountain (Utech Records 2009)
"Here, on the second official Horseback full-length, The Invisible Mountain, Miller has assembled the culmination of his multi-faceted work to-date. In its four songs and 38 minutes, we hear the blackened vocal textures he first employed on MILH IHVH, the modal riffs of Approaching The Invisible Mountain and moments of eye-of-a-storm tranquility much like Impale Golden Horn’s soothing drones. His deliberate pacing and meandering sense of melody has always been constant, but on this, Miller’s best work, he makes for himself a new trademark ... In interviews and press materials, Miller has stated his mission, influenced by the films of Alejandro Jodorowski, to use music as a means of achieving self-actualization, to journey toward some sort of self-discovery ... Deliberate at every turn, spiritually attuned and searching with every subtle shift in tone or notation, The Invisible Mountain reaches beyond the confines of its frequencies to touch something much more vital within its listeners." -- Remember Your Future (August 2009)
"Records like this are why I write about music. Horseback's The Invisible Mountain (Utech, 2009) brings to mind psych rock, black metal, and Ennio Morricone by way of Neil Young. It's dark, beautiful, and patient. If I could meet a mate like this, I'd be set for life. But I'll gladly make do in the meantime with music. Bass lines billow from old chimneys, guitars light distant furnaces, and vocals rasp halfway between black metal and Tom Waits. So many albums, especially in metal, smell like beer or weed. This one smells like cigarettes. It does much with little — a two-note riff here, a three-note reply there. Everything fits together sensibly. The music takes you in, holds you there, then gently releases you with the aptly-named "Hatecloud Dissolving." That song has been my muscle relaxant for the past few months. It's strange to think of becoming dependent on a record, but that's where I am now. Records like this make the world a better place. Seek it and love it and share it like I'm doing now." -- Invisible Oranges (November 2009)
"Horseback is one of many Jenks Miller projects, which include the noisefest of In the Year of the Pig and the pop pleasures of Un Deux Trois. Last year he released an album under his own name, Approaching the Invisible Mountain. With Horseback he arrives. The repetition in the riffing and the slaying rumble of the bass riff that opens a track like "Tyrant Symmetry" place him in drone and Doom rock territory. However, the bluesy quality in the clean guitar lead gives The Invisible Mountain the same epic instrumental rock feel of Grails or Tarentel, and Miller's vocals are so growled and low in the mix that at times they are easy to mistake for another guitar. Both elements separate Horseback from the usual swampy sound of drone rock." -- The Wire (December 2009)
"While the hums and echoes of each [previous] release were distinct, each bore a piece of the sound that emerges on The Invisible Mountain as Horseback's revelation of self: endless, meditative peyote music. With the second Horseback LP, Miller tethers the hellish vocals and aggression of MILH to an overfed version of Approaching's serpentine blues guitar to the hushed majesty of Golden Horn. All in all, it's like a vision quest guided by Rhys Chatham, Tony Iommi and Matthew Bower ... There are no climaxes here. Mountain isn't cathartic thanks to moments of release, but rather its 40-minute commitment to deliberation." -- The Independent (November 2009)
"This record left our Brett feeling ecstatic ... I've got to say that I'm mightily impressed with this one's bassy darkness from the off, as its mantric grooves immediately bring to mind a more full-on, aggressive Om with added chiming guitar arpeggios and black metal vocals.. Three of the four tracks are imbued with an irrepressibly rhythmic forward motion that, in tandem with the name Horseback, can't help but bring to mind the Black Riders which scared the living shit out of me in the Lord of the Rings cartoon as a kid while the final track is a ray of light creeping through the darkness, a blissful near-ambient workout that seems to represent the glorious end of the journey.. Whether it was an internal or external one is left entirely to the listener's imagination. Fantastic!" -- Norman Records (Recommended, August 2009)
"Sticking to repeated mantras of Sabbath inspired grind, there is a sort of kinship to the likes of Loop and Spacemen 3 in approach, even if the sound is much different ... The title track leans more on melodic lead guitar work with an even more '70s rock tinge to it, especially when bolstered by the overdriven bass and repetitive drums. The intentional minimalism carried over from the first two tracks does make it feel a bit like La Monte Young arranging his own version of "Paranoid," which is a good thing. ... The Invisible Mountain is a prime example of an artist pursuing the drone/minimalist route without focusing too heavily on massive detuned guitar riffs or reverb shrouded electronic passages. Horseback takes the idea of drone to the composition level, rather than just the sonic one, and gives new life to a stagnating genre." -- Brainwashed (August 2009)
"The logical, glorious step of turning Rhys Chatham's Guitar Trio into a metal band. [8.5]" -- 1000 Times Yes (September 2009)
"Super intense, and super heavy psychedelic twang flecked metallic post rock. The guitars buzz, and drone, and occasionally twang, the drums are powerful, tight, the instruments locked into slow burning build ups, some strange hybrid of newer Earth, Godspeed, Circle, the Necks and maybe a little Scenic. There's a sort of krautrock vibe going on too. Sun baked, a little lysergic, space-y hypnotic, repetitive, the tracks looooooong, with mostly a single part, that gradually builds and builds. The cool thing is it never explodes into a metal coda, a la Isis or Neurosis or a million other bands, it's all about the journey not the destination, and the journey is riveting enough without tacking on an explosive blow out. The first three tracks are variations on a theme, each an incredible slab of brooding, mesmerizing hypno-rock ... " -- Aquarius Records (New Arrivals, August 2009)
"Whoaaaa....go buy this now! Droners Horseback have somehow morphed themselves into an evil rock pummeler, just destroying everything on this CD for Utech. Evil raspy vocals rolling under a fucking heavy spacemetalrockmachine. It's got the spacey atmosphere of post-rock, but it's like Event Horizon, where you're heading out to space to get your ass kicked. Essential!" -- Hammer Smashed Jazz (August 2009)
"This is excellent, UTECH are on fire right now. With a 'Hex'era EARTH feel of bleak Americana almost, but with a thoroughly unpleasant vocal filled with menace, this has been on heavy rotation here at AB towers. Its almost as though it shouldn't work, but it really does, in beautiful morbid spades." -- Aurora Borealis (August 2009)
"It's refreshing to hear post-metal/drone/experimental/stoner etc. tunes so groundbreaking and moving out in a sect of music that is so easy to forge hackneyed down-tuned atmospheres with little skill. Not so with Horseback, as the care and skill that went into crafting this music is obvious. I enjoyed this album tremendously on an emotional level, as it has a fantastic intangible quality, an atmosphere I can't quite put my finger on. If others will interpret and enjoy it as much as I did I can't say, but it's unquestionably one of the best things I've heard this year. I anxiously await further material from this one-man experimental wrecking crew. Verdict: Epic Win [9/10]" -- From The Dust Returned (September 2009)
"Very tripped out, driving stoner ambiance dirges. The album has this sort of quasi-spiritual bent to it but you wouldn't know from listening to the vocals. Speaking of vocals, they're delivered in a highly distorted black metal rasp. Not the sort of thing that goes with ambient music but it works. Think of a stoner doom version of Burzum and you're on the right track." -- Cheopian Fields (November 2009)
MILH IHVH (Turgid Animal 2009)
"Following his brilliant stoner rock by way of minimalist compositions album The Invisible Mountain, Horseback’s Jenks Miller has delivered another release of carefully calculated minimalism in the old school vein, but here with a bit more of a noise and shoegaze sense ... Miller is definitively cultivating his own sound with Horseback, but it’s especially good to hear him trying variations of a theme. Not many folks would try and mix Charlemagne Palestine and Emperor, with just a smidge of My Bloody Valentine and Skullflower, but that’s what this single is doing." -- Brainwashed (September 2009)
"Both tracks, mournful, strangely serene blackened environs, are built simply: "MILH" is tethered to a four-note descent and matched with unchecked static feedback harmonically, so that it seems to spray and splash off the other tones like liquid steel being poured into a vat. It's coupled with Miller's disfigured yowl and a piercing guitar vibration that cloaks the harshness in a shimmering radiance. The aggregate is inert, cacophonous beauty that moves cautiously, if at all, for more than six minutes. "IHVH" works off a similar text, with less shimmer thanks to a thumping bass drum planted centrally in the mix. The mid-level pounding disappears into outwardly fanning guitars. As the song barrels into its dénouement, heavier tones peel away to reveal a resourceful engine—coarse, wavy guitar lines phasing in and out, emerging from behind a propeller and mimicking the track's initial throb. The effect here, and throughout, isn't dissimilar to Tim Hecker's "Zen intense melody": exhausting, repetitive magnificence. It's just that, lately, Horseback's hypnotic catharsis is delivered through a veneer of beautifully black muck." -- The Independent (October 2009)
"The song’s steady, percussive bludgeon is buried beneath churning, near-static guitars. The piece moves like a glacier, devastatingly slow as it traverses the harsh landscape. It’s a far cry from the dense but soothing atmospherics of Horseback’s debut, but it still seems to reside within the same spectrum. Miller’s voice, distorted to a fuzzy, inhuman wail, becomes a prominent textural element, coaxing the piece along its six-and-a-half minute duration. As the dense guitar fuzz begins to lift, tremulous melodic passages emerge, Miller’s voice drawing them forth as if by incantation." -- The Independent (April 2009)
Approaching the Invisible Mountain (HFQ/NAFH 2008)
"Billed by label Holidays for Quince as an "improvisational guitar record," Approaching the Invisible Mountain sees a departure from the gorgeously dreamy noise of Horseback's 2007 release, Impale Golden Horn. Miller's latest work sees him working his electric guitar for all it's worth, stretching its capabilities far left of center without ever forsaking listenability. And that has become Miller's reputation, making the seemingly avant-garde accessible. It wouldn't be a stretch to call Miller one of the area's most versatile and innovative musicians." -- Dive Blog (May 2008)
"On his solo debut, Approaching the Invisible Mountain, Miller picks and coaxes sounds from his guitar in a more standard style. In doing so, though, he explores some of his most nebulous territory yet through six instrumental improvisations bend around a thematic piece, "Babylon Destroyer," a blues-based guitar revision. Miller breaks up minitature guitar figures using space and silence in surprising ways. The result can be alternately confusing and alluring, but this record isn't meant to unfold in black and white." -- The Independent Weekly (June 2008)
"You can feel the room breathe on the recording, which gives it immediacy and also reveals Miller’s tasteful restraint. At some points, it seems as if he’ll wander off into new, uncharted territories, but he stays on his own path, gracefully thwarting the listener’s expectations. By bending a note, pausing to let the segments resonate, and then resuming form, he makes Approaching the Invisible Mountain something both plotted and intentional." -- Tiny Mix Tapes (January 2009)
"The enjoyment in this material lays within the personal connection between the player and the instrument. Miller exercises brilliant restraint, making a smart move to not overstay the thirty minute running time. This is not Horseback. This is a more personal affair with the guitar kept immediate and at the forefront within the confines of your head. In a time when it seems that solo guitarists and pedal junkies are fast becoming a planetary epidemic, I have much respect for a player who from time to time is willing to rely strictly on intuition, dropping the use of their toys and sticking to the basics. 8/10" -- Foxy Digitalis (July 2008)
"This album is all guitar. Just one guitar. One very well played beautifully sounding guitar. Jenks Miller also plays as Horseback. Though that is a lot more psychedelic and drone, but this is just straight up guitar playing. I find it to be very calm and soothing." -- Brayan Magdaleno, KUCI New Experimental Releases (October 2008)
"A beautiful set of solo electric guitar pieces that might remind you of John Fahey, but remind me most of Neil Young's Dead Man soundtrack." -- Trianglerock.com (June 2008)
"Approaching the Invisible Mountain is a demonstration of Jenks Miller's affinity for and participation in the now well-established tradition of experimental American guitar. However, instead of simply trying to be a new John Fahey or Robbie Basho or similar, Miller embraces electric guitar here, favoring steady contemplation at the start of the album rather than the kind of intricacies one normally associates with that general style. While not groundbreaking as such, it is a useful statement of purpose, and by eschewing fuzz in favor of clean tones and controlled reverb, when things do get busier in the playing at points the effect is rich and lush without being kaleidoscopically overwhelming. The sense of deep space suggested by the pauses during the overall performance makes Miller's playing all the more lovely to behold, and if ultimately the six parts feel more like gentle variations around a core theme instead of a progression from place to place, it does not dull the impact of the songs at all." -- All Music Guide (September 2009)
"On his latest, and the first under his own name, Approaching the Invisible Mountain, Miller grabs his electric guitar, builds it up and tears it back down, stretching it further than most would consider, drawing tones from across the sonic map ... Granted, it sometimes takes an open mind and a willingness to experiment, but listeners able to leave their comfort zones will immediately find that buried under sounds that might first be classified as experimental and unknown, there is an abundance of melody and beauty.
Approaching the Invisible Mountain is no different. The seemingly avant-garde is drawn back toward the center on the type of record that features such distinct and different sounds that each of its six tracks could serve as the soundtrack to all of your dreams." -- The Daily Tarheel (June 2008)
Impale Golden Horn (Burly Time/HFQ 2007)
"So gorgeous. Absolutely one of our favorite new records, a practically perfect fade-out-drift-off-drone-dream-disc ... Best drone record of the year? Quite possibly... " -- Aquarius Records (New Arrivals, July 2007)
"A great drone record can envelop, displace and fascinate by turns, such is the wealth of detail in every frozen but rapidly liquifying moment. Lesser efforts may favor detail over impact and change over stasis, but it is the rare breed that achieves the fine balance of subtlety and power necessary to maintain interest over extended listening. For that reason, Impale Golden Horn, Chapel Hill, North Carolina multi-instrumentalist Jenks Miller’s debut full-length as a solo artist, is one of the finest drone discs I’ve encountered in some time. Although drone is at the heart of Miller’s aesthetic, labeling the project that way is somewhat unjust. The disc’s closer, "Blood Fountain," sports a beautifully morphing structure akin to songcraft, but it is also the easiest point of entry for what can be a dense listening experience. Miller layers creamy-smooth guitars, piano, watery-clear vocals and hard-panned drums over a bed of distortion, but for Miller, distortion is never a crutch. As with Birchville Cat Motel or early Stars of the Lid, it is a vehicle, a portal through which starker focus on the subtle transformations occurring in simultaneous sonic events is achieved. Harmonic shifts and the drums’ miraculous emergence are bolstered but, importantly, never overshadowed by shimmering fuzz ... The disc’s diversity is somewhat masked by all-encompassing drones, but it is there, waiting to reward the dedicated listener." -- Signal to Noise (Issue 49, Spring 2008)
“'Finale' is a pretty brazen debut for Chapel Hill noisician Jenks Miller, an ebow-chugging mix of ever-overlapping drones and shimmering squall. Calling it 'Finale'—even though it’s the first track on the record—was as obvious a choice as, say, 'Exit Music (For A Film)' or 'Ascension.'" (9/10) -- Paper Thin Walls (March 2007)
"Horseback's debut, Impale Golden Horn, reads as "Easy Listening" in iTunes. It seems like an ironic classification for a cacophonous drone-based record. But once you acclimate yourself to the album's oversized sounds, it's an oddly apt fit, especially for the plaintive "Blood Fountain." Featuring help from Heather McEntire of Un Deux Trois and Bellafea, Jenks Miller's maximalist meditation on blood coaxes a twinkling long-form guitar figure through a hedge of hymn-like hums. In no hurry to get where it's going, bereft of abrasive protrusions, it continually lifts and glides, finally bottoming out in a flurry of percussion that teases out the latent rhythm so adeptly that it sounds inevitable when it arrives." -- Independent Weekly (The Triangle's Best Songs of 2007, December 2007)
"This is drone at its most capacious and its most beautiful. It's the sort of thing that would be at home on the next interstellar space probe, nestled next to Bach and Beethoven, to show whoever's listening the breadth of our collective musical experience." -- Sound Advice (January 2008)
"Jenks Miller created this album as a means of cathartically dealing with his OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder). And while it won’t be to everyone’s liking, Horseback often makes one feel uncomfortable or unnerved, but in a very good way. Divided into four sections or songs, the album begins with a 17-minute “Finale”. With a lengthy string of drones and guitars, the tune sounds like an epic or mammoth introduction. Yet it’s still a very pretty track that seems to flow easily throughout. It’s a tune that fans of Mogwai would definitely appreciate and admire. “The Golden Horn” meanwhile continues along that path, with Miller adding more piano and putting the guitar feedback in the background. This seems to be a more reflective and thoughtful piece. Perhaps the most interesting song of the four is “Laughing Celestial Architect” which is a decent blending of both first and second song styles, resembling Kevin Shields and his Bloody Valentine or, to a lesser extent, Spiritualized. However, at some point it becomes just a bit mundane and tiring, almost lulling the listener to sleep. The closing “Blood Fountain” is definitely the highlight for the simple fact there are vocals here to offset the sweet music." -- Popmatters (July 2007)
"Miller's attention to detail is astonishing as he builds and deconstructs his instrumental tales. The songs lull you into a blissful dream-like state before slowly bringing you back into consciousness." -- Sound as Language
"Though it be noise, it isn't abrasive. [Its] atonality becomes a densely layered blanket that sweeps over the listener heavily, but without smothering. The faintest hints of a melody seep through the fog from time to time, like the remnants of a pleasantly remembered dream." -- The Daily Tarheel (June 2007)
"A compelling effort to say the least, as the space of these songs provide for enough personal feeling to ensure a connection, be it in a live setting or repeated spins of this album." -- N/A Reviews (October 2007)
"[Impale Golden Horn] is a shimmering gem ... four tracks of layered drone that gains a drum-beat at times and morphs into something resembling dream pop. While the record occasionally steeps in a meditative stasis, some points verge on Sigur Rós-style post-rock, contemplative and majestic at once." -- The Pittsburgh City Paper (November 2007)
"Labeled as a drone record, "Impale Golden Horn" is nowhere about experimentation, improvisation, weirdness or snobbery. Instead it is an impressive work of composition, translating a beautiful and fragile sensitivity, the work of three years ... It takes a few listen[s] to realize how much ["Impale Golden Horn"] is a personal and revealing record, how much depth is hidden behind apparently simple drone waves and layers, how much subtlety lays in the textures and slowly evolving structures of these tracks ...." -- Derives.net (November 2007)
dude!!!! your new album on utech records is just so unbelievable. it looks awesome and sounds great. it is one excellent piece of work. good job. if you come to detroit let me know i'd love to see you play live again. THANK YOU.
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