Words by Ruby Kolik
We are descending into pixels on the internet, just in time for feeble little horse’s return with a surprise new full-length studio album, bitknot, with Saddle Creek Records.
After a lengthy wait between the release of their 2023 album Girl with Fish and now, feeble little horse is back for more–and this time they’re not so feeble. In three years, the band has released their single “This is Real” and gone on a national tour for Girl with Fish. With this new release marking their third full album, the Pittsburgh-born band is more confident than ever to expand their horizons beyond the bounds of the US, and they have just announced that they will tour both in the US and internationally behind the album, starting July 11th through the end of the year.
bitknot is a true showcase of the band’s alternative, electronic aesthetic. Written, arranged, produced, and recorded by Sebastian Kinsler, Lydia Slocum, and Jake Kelley across their respective homes in Pittsburgh, the album focuses its attention on themes of identity, overconsumption, and returns to a retro version of what our computers once were, grounding itself in the zeros and ones.
“The album art is based on the coincidental core memory matrix,” the band writes in their Instagram post announcing both the album and tour, “which was used in old computers to store memory/access information using 0s and 1s. Each core, or ‘bit,’ is accessed through the grid of wires, like a knot that stores secret details and memories.” The wall of noise that permutates the space in your ears serves as a line between the world of real and that of the technological. Lydia whispers in your ears before breaking out into screams, as the echoed electric guitar supports, almost smothers, her vocals. They become one.
In bitknot, they’ve returned to the studio with similar glitchcore and pop sounds from before. The album, at a short 25 minutes, sounds more summer pop than releases before, utilizing similar synth sounds heard in artists like Frost Children and ear. The opening is as epic as ever, with amp feedback and heavy drums, descending quickly into a conversation, an up-beat blend of predictable snare hits, then deeper once again to the heavier metal sounds. Lydia’s voice is relied on in songs like “Paris” and “Rewind” as it has been in the past, but in a song like “Cradle”, we hear the voices of other band members which brings a fullness to the songs presence. “DMT” is arguably the most metal song on the track list, including record scratches, electric guitar riffs, and the everpresent screams of their lead singer. “Upside Down” is held steady with a heavy bass drum line and distorted vocal tones that eventually devolve in the end, the way many of their songs tend to do, sounding intentionally rough around the edges. The album weaves between genres and sounds, opening the conversation of deep identity exploration and the multifaceted experience of a young person’s personal exploration.
It’s no secret that, in a technologically driven world, the visual is just as important as the audio. feeble little horse’s online presence is nothing short of enchanting and maintains the aestheticism that many indie artists strive for. In the past six months, The Asheley Catacombs has seen an increased volume of posts. The Tumblr page, run by lead singer Lydia Slocum, started as a blog of sorts detailing her post-grad life, but is now generally a creative and artistic collective visualized as a website that would be seen on Windows 98. The page is dedicated to cutting out “platforms that combine art and commercials”. The band has built their brand not around rejecting modernity, but leaning into it, and returning audiences to a form of media consumption that is centered around the individual rather than larger corporations. The lack of information about the new album’s release by the band, paired with their distinct yet anonymous whimsical imagery ties feeble little horse’s aesthetic together with a loose, string of cut up metal.
Polyvox Magazine 
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