Album review - Return to Dust - Mild Horses

Mild Horses is the project of Matthew Leuw who was previously a member of Norwich based noise pop band Crest, Brighton based art-punks Coin-op and was one-half of a Lo-fi electro pop duo 2 Hot 2 Sweat. Based on that CV, it's easy to see that Matthew doesn't like to stay still, get stale or fall into any genre box traps. There really is a little bit of a hell-of-a-lot on this second album - Return To Dust. 

The album is an eclectic and leftfield mix of genres with opening track showcasing the brighter, poppier electro side of the artist with a driving military beat and hypnotic vocal mantra. There is strong psychedelic flavour across all the tracks but each is infused with it's own tone, dynamic and none of them stay on the same idea for long.  

The most recent single from this album - Summerland - goes to emphasise how Matthew does things his own way - at over six minutes it's definitely not the obvious single - it meanders, lacks hooks, is comparatively bleak and isn't ever likely to be picked up for radio or playlisting coverage, but those kind of considerations are not likely to be on Matthew's agenda whatsoever, much to his credit and boldness.

The journey across this album is by no means easy, but repeat listens are rewarded exponentially with sonic discoveries, melodies unfolding and a myriad of moods, emotions and genres are expressed masterfully. This is definitely introspective, shoe gazing music but it ebbs and flows cleverly from driving power, to melancholic drifting and back again. 

Highlights (currently) include the title track, Peloton Doomscroll and the beautiful The Only One Left which declares that "time is on my side" and that line seems to capture the ethic of a confident artist with time to swerve and veer, savouring every minute he spends creating whatever music works for him whenever the feeling arrives.