horsegiiirL
V.I.P. - Very Important Pony
THREE SIX ZERO
If you couldn’t tell from her centaurian identity and tongue-in-cheek lyrics, Berlin-based producer/artist/DJ horsegiirL is on the frontlines advocating for unserious art. “I really strongly disagree with the notion that high art, good art, in any form has to be serious and super intellectual,” she shared in an interview last year. Ergo horsegiirL, a.k.a. Stella Stallion, a high-fashion horse DJ that blasts out euphoric hardstyle blending fantasy, hardcore club music, and glamour—a simultaneous surge of adrenaline and dopamine.
So, what happens when you bring a smalltown horse to a club in the big city? As her name suggests, horsegiirL comes from a sheltered rural upbringing where she was ignorant to the horrors of factory farming and other forms of industrial animal cruelty. “I grew up in a stable home; it was a small farm and there was no meat production. I didn’t realise this kind of thing happened until I left the farm and ventured into cities,” she revealed in another interview. Breaking out of her pastoral bubble exposed her not only to animal rights issues, but the intoxication of fame and wealth. As her own legend goes, she was discovered at an event called Harvest Festival by a pop star named Whitney Horseton and has gone from making strides in the animal kingdom to leaps and bounds in the human-dominated world.
The pseudo anonymity surrounding horsegiirL is more playful than mysterious, adding to her music rather than distracting from it. Even if you weren’t privy to her lore, the songs on her latest EP, V.I.P. - Very Important Pony, are campy anthems and immediate mood boosters. “Maybe there is more to life than farming on the daily,” she sings in a whispery coo over a bubble-popping beat on opener “Material Hor$e.” “I like diamonds and big checks / Private islands and rich sex.” The track clocks in at under two minutes, but horsegiirL’s posh fantasy is as electrifyingly immediate as opening your bank account on payday. It isn’t until “giirL Math” with PC Music artist Namasenda that horsegiirL truly shines as a comedic voice, slyly dunking on recent viral internet verbiage with an Anna Delvey hustler energy. “I just wanna be a star / Eat caviar / Meet me at the mall / It’s a free for all,” she saccharinely sings, punctuated by a cry of “shoplifting” in the background.
There are plenty of memes about music online, but it’s hard to make a case that much of it translates to entertaining or innovative recordings. Throughout V.I.P., horsegiirL reminds us of the zany effect online culture has had on the world (such as solidifying abstract concepts like “horsegirls” and “girl math”). It’s silly, stupid, and doesn’t warrant a cynical thesis. Somehow, becoming a literal horsegirl superstar DJ making tracks influenced by both Crazy Frog and Lady Gaga feels powerfully innocent instead of a corny barnyard schtick.
