Feeble Little Horse leans into digital weirdness on bitknot
Feeble Little Horse leans into digital weirdness on bitknot
Feeble Little Horse 在新专辑《bitknot》中拥抱数字怪诞美学
The band has evolved from exciting indie rock throwback into something more cutting-edge. 这支乐队已经从令人兴奋的独立摇滚复古风，进化成了更具前沿感的音乐力量。
From the opening moments of bitknot, it’s obvious that Feeble Little Horse has found an entirely new gear. Where on Girl with Fish the blown-out textures were more ’90s indie rock and shoegaze, on their latest LP, there’s a more modern edge to the distortion and the riffs cut cleaner. Similarly, where the digital glitchiness was mostly relegated to window dressing on their sophomore record, on bitknot it’s integral to the arrangements and a core part of their emerging, distinct sound. 从《bitknot》开篇的那一刻起，显而易见，Feeble Little Horse 已经切换到了全新的档位。如果说在《Girl with Fish》中，那种失真的质感更多带有 90 年代独立摇滚和自赏摇滚（shoegaze）的色彩，那么在他们这张最新的长篇专辑中，失真效果显得更具现代感，吉他 Riff 的切割也更加利落。同样地，如果说数字故障感（glitchiness）在他们的第二张专辑中大多只是点缀，那么在《bitknot》中，它已成为编曲中不可或缺的一部分，也是他们正在形成的独特声音的核心。
We got a preview of this new direction on the one-off single, and one of my favorite songs of 2025, “This Is Real.” It blended blast beats, Sonic Youth-esque guitar melodies, pitch-shifted vocals, and glitchy samples. It even briefly lets the metronome click bleed into the track. It’s a three-minute chaotic tour de force that needs to be heard. 我们曾在单曲《This Is Real》中预见到了这种新方向，这也是我 2025 年最喜欢的歌曲之一。它融合了极速金属的鼓点（blast beats）、Sonic Youth 风格的吉他旋律、变调人声以及故障采样。它甚至让节拍器的滴答声短暂地渗入音轨。这是一首三分钟长的混乱杰作，绝对值得一听。
Bitknot reins in the scatterbrained tendencies and turns the thesis of “This Is Real” into something more approachable and sustainable over the length of a 25-minute LP. The opener, “Doorway,” starts with a wail of feedback and a pummeling series of guitar stabs before settling into a melodic microloop of synths and vocals over a programmed drumbeat. It drifts back to the big drum hits and fuzzy guitars for the chorus, gradually adding elements before collapsing into an outro of beat repeats and vocal stutters. It’s more “restrained hyperpop” than “maximalist indie rock” by the end. 《bitknot》收敛了那种散乱的倾向，将《This Is Real》的核心理念转化为一种在 25 分钟专辑长度内更易于接受且可持续的表达。开场曲《Doorway》以一声反馈啸叫和一系列猛烈的吉他击打开始，随后沉淀为合成器与人声在编程鼓点之上的旋律微循环。副歌部分回归到大鼓点和模糊的吉他声，在逐渐增加元素后，最终坍塌进一段由节拍重复和人声卡顿组成的尾奏。比起“极繁主义独立摇滚”，它听起来更像是“克制的超流行（hyperpop）”。
“Rewind” relishes in its cheesy synths. It’s college rock guitar and aloof guitars seamlessly married to bird recordings, a synth koto patch, and meowing melodies. “Shady” pairs low-quality MP3 guitars with a drum loop that sounds ripped from a 1998 issue of Computer Music Magazine. “Dior” even brings back the click track gimmick from “This Is Real” for its outro. 《Rewind》沉浸在俗气的合成器音色中。大学摇滚风格的吉他与冷漠的吉他声无缝结合，融入了鸟鸣录音、合成器古筝音色以及猫叫般的旋律。《Shady》将低质量的 MP3 吉他音色与一段听起来像是从 1998 年《Computer Music Magazine》杂志里扒出来的鼓循环配对。《Dior》甚至在尾奏中带回了《This Is Real》里的节拍器噱头。
If “This Is Real” was trying on a splashy new outfit at the store, bitknot is learning to incorporate some of that outfit’s flamboyant elements into your daily wardrobe and make it yours. 如果说《This Is Real》是在商店里试穿一套华丽的新装，那么《bitknot》就是在学习如何将那套衣服中张扬的元素融入日常穿搭，并将其转化为属于自己的风格。
It never reaches the absurd giddy highs of last year’s single, but it’s a better showcase for Lydia Slocum’s songwriting. The lyrics veer from sweet on “Cradle” (“I’ll draw our baby’s face / Give it your last name”), to bitterly disaffected (“That butterfly was my mistake / An analog of something fake / A metaphor I couldn’t shake”) on “Upside Down.” Slocum’s even got jokes on “Dior” (“He hit my line and said he wants to know his chances / Can’t tell a lie, I told him, ‘Slim like my Virginias’”). 虽然它从未达到去年那首单曲那种荒诞而令人眩晕的高潮，但它更好地展示了 Lydia Slocum 的创作才华。歌词在《Cradle》中的甜蜜（“我会画出我们孩子的脸 / 给它冠上你的姓氏”）与《Upside Down》中苦涩的冷漠（“那只蝴蝶是我的错 / 是某种虚假事物的模拟 / 一个我无法摆脱的隐喻”）之间切换。Slocum 在《Dior》中甚至还开了个玩笑（“他给我发消息说想知道他的机会 / 我不能撒谎，我告诉他，‘像我的弗吉尼亚烟草一样渺茫’”）。
The back chunk of the record fully embraces the band’s new digital aesthetic. “Upside Down” is the closest to the raw glitchiness of hyperpop, “Guts” features a chopped-up vocal as a lead melodic instrument, and “Shopping” has a siren-like loping lead guitar and is bathed in subtle low-bit noise. The closer, “DMT,” explodes out of the speakers with a shower of digital sparkles and a riff that sounds like someone playing a guitar strung with rebar. 专辑的后半部分完全拥抱了乐队新的数字美学。《Upside Down》最接近超流行音乐那种原始的故障感，《Guts》将切碎的人声作为主旋律乐器，《Shopping》则拥有类似警笛般蹒跚的主音吉他，并沐浴在微妙的低比特噪音中。结尾曲《DMT》伴随着一阵数字火花和一段听起来像是用钢筋做琴弦的吉他 Riff，从音箱中爆发出来。
The Feeble Little Horse on Girl with Fish was a great band, but they felt like something of a throwback. On bitknot, they’ve become something more, something special. 《Girl with Fish》时期的 Feeble Little Horse 是一支很棒的乐队，但他们当时感觉更像是一种复古的产物。而在《bitknot》中，他们已经蜕变成某种更宏大、更特别的存在。
Feeble Little Horse’s bitknot is available now on Bandcamp and most major streaming platforms, including Qobuz, Deezer, Apple Music, YouTube Music, and Spotify. Feeble Little Horse 的《bitknot》现已在 Bandcamp 及大多数主流流媒体平台上线，包括 Qobuz、Deezer、Apple Music、YouTube Music 和 Spotify。