from the first moments of Bitcoin, It’s clear that Feeble Little Horse has got a whole new gear. Where fish girl The blown out textures were more ’90s indie rock and shoegaze, on their latest LP, there is a more modern edge to the distortion and the riffs cut cleaner. Similarly, where digital glitch was mostly represented as window dressing on their sophomore record Bitcoin It is an integral part of the arrangements and a key part of their emerging, distinctive sound.
We got a preview of this new direction on the single and one of my favorite songs of 2025, “This Is Real.” It featured a mix of blast beats, Sonic Youth-esque guitar riffs, pitch-shifted vocals, and glitchy samples. This briefly allows the metronome clicks to bleed into the track. It’s a three-minute chaotic tour de force that needs to be heard.
Bitcoin reins in scattered tendencies and transforms the thesis of “This Is Real” into something more acceptable and sustainable at 25 minutes LP length. The opener, “Doorway”, begins with a blistering series of feedback moans and guitar strums before settling into a melodic microloop of synths and vocals over a programmed drumbeat. It goes back to big drum hits and fuzzy guitars for the chorus, slowly adding elements before collapsing into an outro of beat repeats and vocal stutters. In the end it’s more “restrained hyperpop” than “maximalist indie rock”.
“Rewind” enjoys its cheesy synths. It’s college rock guitar and aloof guitar seamlessly fused with bird recordings, a synth cotto patch and meow melodies. “Shady” combines low-quality MP3 guitar with a drum loop that sounds like it was taken from a 1998 issue computer music magazine. “Dior” also brings back the click track gimmick from “This Is Real” for its outro.
If “This Is Real” was trying on a fabulous new dress at the store, Bitcoin Learning to incorporate some of the funky elements of that outfit into your everyday wardrobe and making it your own.
It never quite reaches the absurdly giddy heights of last year’s single, but it’s a better showcase for Lydia Slocum’s songwriting. The lyrics range from sweet on “Cradle” (“I’ll make our baby’s face/Give it my last name”) to bitterly disaffected on “Upside Down” (“That butterfly was my fault/An analog of something fake/A metaphor I couldn’t shake”). Slocum also got jokes on “Dyer” (“He listened to me and said he wanted to know his chances/Can’t lie, I told him, ‘Skinny like my Virginia'”).
The back half of the record fully embraces the band’s new digital aesthetic. “Upside Down” comes closest to the raw mess of hyperpop, “Guts” features shredded vocals as the main melodic instrument, and “Shopping” features siren-like loping lead guitar and is bathed in subtle low-bit noise. The closer, “DMT”, pours out of the speakers with a shower of digital sparkles and a riff that sounds like someone is playing a guitar tied to a bar.
weak horse fish girl With a great band, but they felt like it was an old thing. But BitcoinThey have become something more, something special.
weak little horses Bitcoin Now available on Bandcamp and most major streaming platforms including Qobuz, Deezer, Apple Music, YouTube Music, and Spotify.
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