Track Of The Day Jackson VanHorn
Former founding member of proto-psych-punk outfit TV Ghost, Indianapolis based composer, singer and musician Jackson VanHorn started his solo venture in 2014 under the Crossed Eyes moniker to soon continue with his own name, mining his inspirations from the obscurity and strains of 80s British Post-punk and New Wave (Joy Division, The Sound, Psychedelic Furs, Echo & The Bunnymen, The Cure), meditative ambient electronica (Eno, Sakamoto), 90s Shoegaze/Indie Rock, David Bowie’s Art-Rock and influential North American songwriters such as Leonard Cohen, Nick Cave, Lou Reed, further enriched by an intriguing array of references from literature and visual arts.
As depicted in the latest late 2021 sophomore album, “A Silent Understanding”, Indiana multi-instrumentalist has developed a distinctively elegant, emotional and atmospheric sound, at the same time dark and enveloping, nostalgic and distressed, steeped in bittersweet melancholy and doomed romanticism, cast in alluringly caressing yet restless vocals.
Along the moody electro-acoustic lines of last December’s “Fallout” single, the new song reveals a newfound clarity and insight from underneath the shattered ruins of a loved one’s oppressive disguise.
“Guise” unwinds through hypnotic insistent guitar arpeggios, lead by pitch-shifting punchy drum beats, spreading out with shimmering vibrance into the fizzling murky shadows, amidst tinkling keyed echoes and wistful chiming ripples, resounding with sinuous forlorn poignancy around angsty haunted vocal airs, aching and drifting through the chaotic memories of another’s deception.
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