Gus Englehorn

If Gus Englehorn didn’t exist, one of his songs would have to invent him. A former pro snowboarder reborn as a nomadic psych-pop prophet, Englehorn has lived a rollercoaster life that reads like one of the fantastical fables that fill his songbook. Back in January 2020, right at the dawn of the pandemic, Englehorn released his first album, Death & Transfiguration, whose opening jangle-punk sermon, “My Own Paradise,” proved to be a timely mission statement for a moment when we were all forced to retreat into our own private sanctuaries for months that felt like years. But even as life has since opened up again, Englehorn is still firmly situated in a world of his own madcap design. Where 2022’s Dungeon Master walked the tightrope between DIY discord and prog-scaled storytelling, his third album, The Hornbook, magically transmutes the entire history of 20th-century rock ‘n’ roll—’50s golden oldies, ‘60s garage spunk, ‘70s glam flamboyance,‘80s indie transgression, ‘90s lo-fi weirdness— into an alien transmission from the future. The Hornbook was largely written in Maui but recorded in Montreal with producer Mark Lawson, whose C.V, includes one of Englehorn’s personal touchstones: Who Will Cut Our Hair When We’re Gone?, the gloriously ramshackle 2003 debut album from Montreal cult heroes The Unicorns. “The Unicorns are a huge influence,” Englehorn enthuses, and certainly you can hear a similar childlike sensibility on The Hornbook, from the Dr. Seussian wordplay in his songs, to the ever-present mischievous glee in his singing voice, to the sandbox experimental approach he shares with drummer Estée Preda. The Hornbook was mixed by Paul Leary from the legendary noise-rock band Butthole Surfers.