Charlie Horn Releases MARBLE & MUD Single From Debut Solo LP
The In The Pines guitarist recorded the project at a converted Masonic Temple in Dayton, Kentucky.
Charlie Horn, guitarist and singer for Cincinnati psych-rock act IN THE PINES, has released the single and accompanying video for MARBLE & MUD, the opening track from his debut solo album RHYTHMS UNEXPLAINED. The full record is set for release as a self-released effort. The song and album mark a departure from the expansive sound of Horn's band work, favoring a stripped-back approach built around vintage synthesizers that Horn salvaged and rebuilt himself.
IN THE PINES is described as Cincinnati, OH's next big psych-rock export. Horn's solo work dials back the bombast of the band's swelling, spacey songs in favor of stripped-back, emotionally poignant narratives that track some pretty harrowing emotional points in Horn's timeline.
Marble and Mud kicks off Horn's debut album and acts as the opening salvo to listeners from the Cincinnati, OH psych rock IN THE PINES guitarist. Vintage synthesizers, which Horn salvaged and rebuilt, kick off the opening melody of a song that ponders the usefulness of self-deprecation and lax boundaries under the command of shimmering synths, deft guitars and Horn's commanding voice that hits somewhere between Kurt Vile and Evan Dando.
At the heart of the album is an MCI JH16 2' 16-track machine that, like much of the equipment Horn uses, was rescued from the trash and rebuilt piece by piece. The songs were laden with modified Harmonizers, wire-wrapped EMT reverbs and occasional (mis)use of gear that can only be discovered after years spent on the bench developing deep understandings of this old gear.
'Kate Welch' is a song written to, and about, the woman who owned and passed away in Horn's home before he bought it. The house is haunted, but the haunting is an emotionally neutral acknowledgement that Welch's presence is most likely innocuous and perhaps instinctual. She drops in every once and while, conjured at times when the needle hits an especially good country record.
Less neutral is a song like 'Rhythms Unexplained.' The song is written to Horn's brother who passed away in 2022. The sheer emotional heft bends every guitar string on this song, warbling underneath the line 'you're light as a feather now / just one I can't see.' There is still a beckoning to be haunted - a sense that our deceased loved ones lie just beyond our ability to perceive them.
Another album standout is 'Antlers' - a reverse haunting where Horn watches, immobile from his perch as the antlers on a wall, as another life he could have lived unfolds around him. Rooted in the present are tracks like the album opener 'Marble and Mud' - a song that reflects on how a life without boundaries can wear us down to a passive reception of what we think we deserve.
Single Schedule
Marble & Mud - 08.11.26
Antlers - 09.15.26
'Antlers' is a reverse haunting where Horn watches, immobile from his perch as the antlers on a wall, as another life he could have lived unfolds around him. Lyrics are juxtaposed with a mid-tempo track that employs layers of swirling, twangy guitars and plenty of righteous bass melodies playing ping-pong with each other.
Kate Welsh - 10.20.26
The third single namechecks the ghost that haunts Horn's home. Written for (and perhaps with?) the former occupant of Horn's home that passed away in it. The track possesses a striking metaphor for the legacy we leave behind and the places we already haunt. A slow-tempo track that employs rich, layered percussion and mournful guitar melodies that sound like they are being beamed in from some forlorn country western station that hasn't been on the air for forty years.
High Tide Already - 11.10.26
'High Tide Already' stares grief head on, embracing loss in all of the strange, unsteadying waves that it comes in. Horn is kind enough to wrap this song in some of the most sumptuous synths found on the album - a lighthouse of glistening melodies that both undergird and act as a stunning centerpoint of the song that contemplates and ultimately accepts loss that feels too huge to bear.
Credits
Produced by: Charlie Horn
Engineered by: Peter Foley and Alex Dungan
Mixed by: Andrew Lappin
Mastered By: Greg Obis
Design by: Alex York, Dan Buckley, and Ben Schurr
Personnel
Charlie Horn - Vocals, Guitar, Bass
Alex Dungan - Drums
Peter Foley - Synthesizer, Vocals
Michael Shular - Bass
Daniel Sutter - Guitar
Tracklist
1. Marble and Mud
2. Kate Welsh
3. My Eyes Will Adjust
4. What's Been Chasing Me
5. Rhythms Unexplained
6. High Tide Already
7. Antlers
8. Acid Rain
9. Hit the Deck
10. Nothing to Me
RHYTHMS UNEXPLAINED was recorded at a home studio belonging to Peter Foley, who also runs Foleytronics, a vintage synthesizer and effects repair shop operated by Horn and his bandmates in the basement of a former Masonic Temple in Dayton, Kentucky. The album was engineered by Foley and Alex Dungan and mixed by Andrew Lapin and Dungan, with contributions from Foley on synth, Dungan on drums, Michael Shular on bass, and Daniel Sutter on guitar.
Photo Credit: Adriana Noritz
Photo Credit: Adriana Noritz
