How bad is it out there? Is this the preapocalyptic era? Or are we the proverbial frog in boiling water and the end of days is already here? Maybe this is just late-capitalism Suck City. Whatever the reality, take heart, Rider/Horse has provided an exhilarating score for this seemingly hopeless era of anxiety and decay.

On their sophomore release, Feed ’Em Salt, the duo of Cory Plump and Chris Turco deliver the same booming industrial thud and twisted shards of Chrome-plated noise that made their debut, Select Trials, one of the finest releases of 2021. But Feed ’Em Salt subtly pushes the outfit into new aesthetic realms and further distinguishes Rider/Horse as an entity to be reckoned with on its own terms, distinct from the other bands in which the pair have played (Spray Paint, Trans Am, Les Say Fav, to name a few).

Where the icy grind of Select Trials conjured a Man with No Name traversing the desolation of a nuclear winter, Feed ’Em Salt adds pedal steel (courtesy of experimental multi-instrumentalist Zoots Houston), features the occasional mutant disco rhythm, and delivers some of the sleaziest basslines since Tracy Pew got his head stuck in Phill Calvert’s drum kit. That's not to say there isn't plenty of ominous cacophony here. But imagine if the Man with No Name stumbled into some sort of fever-dream ritual dance fueled by expired Four Lokos and held inside an abandoned Cash for Gold. He just might hear "Rotting Profits" coming out of whatever jerry-rigged speaker system the place had. Even the bad times are good if the music is right. All hail Kingston's finest.

--Nate K., Burn It Down! w/ Nate K. on WFMU
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