Before even attempting to catch up here I thought it a good hit of post-rock would be a suitable way to try and blow the cobwebs off just as I employ the genre on a Monday morning to ease the kick in the jewels that the start of the week resembles.
As it happens, there’s been a glut of great new post-rock recently that’s been working its magic in my ears but before we get to that, here’s another wonderfully daft attempt at defining the genre:
“Post-rock is a genre of music characterized by its use of rock instrumentation for non-rock purposes, often emphasizing atmosphere, texture, and mood over traditional song structures and lyrics. This style frequently incorporates elements from various genres such as electronic, ambient, and experimental music, resulting in a sound that is expansive and cinematic in nature.”
Hm, much beard-stroking.
Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Grey Rubble, Green Shoots
Yeah, let’s start it with the biggest of bangs. How good is the new Goodspeed You! album? It’s fucking glorious – it’s vast, grungy, majestic, it’s powerful and sweeping in its scale and, on the few listens I’ve been able to fit in since it dropped on Friday, sits strong in their catalogue. It’s title – No Title as of 13 February 2024 28,340 Dead – a reference to the number of dead Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Mogwai – God Gets You Back
New Mogwai is always a reason to sit up and pay attention. While the announcement that accompanied the release of new song ‘God Gets You Back’ (another random title) was that of a tour, all signs point to new album to follow and this one manages to feel like a much-desired combination of their soundtrack work with their ‘usual’ sound.
Exxasens – Space Collapse
New Exxassens? Space-themed samples? Thunderous beats? Oh sign me up mate.
Public Service Broadcasting – Arabian Flight
I’m relatively sure you can sneak a chunk of Public Service Broadcasting’s music into this category. While I haven’t jumped on board with every album they’ve done when their combination of predominantly instrumental music to accompany archival samples hits my interests I’m in. Previously this was with Race for Space but their new album The Last Flight – chronicling Amelia Earhart’s final attempt – fits into that category too and has already had a couple of spins here.
Jambinai – once more from that frozen bottom
Not strictly ‘new’ but very new to me as I only recently discovered the South Korean band’s 2022 ep apparation and there’s nothing but love from me for their combination of heavier post-rock with traditional folk instruments.
Despite all our fervent entreaties to various fictional deities, Monday is upon us. For me that always means working to a post-rock soundtrack. I’ve recently added one of the genre’s high points to my collection with We Lost The Sea’s Departure Songs. As it winged its way to my record shelves via Australia Post (BandCamp is a wonderful thing) I thought it a good opportunity to spin the eye of this blog momentarily onto that country’s offerings.
Once again I’ve turned to the internet to come up with a definition of post-rock and, once again, it continues to amuse: “Post-rock is rock music transcending itself – a form of creative freedom that looks within rather than without.Instead of exuberant frontmen and women, we’re confronted by shy, often sad-looking artistes, more at ease in the solitude of a recording studio rather than in front of an audience who love their music.
Audacious experimentation requires introspection and staying away from the loud, chaotic lifestyle that for decades was the epitome of rock music. And because of that, post-rock bands introduced a new way to experience this genre, one centred on the individual and their deepest emotions.”
Crikey.
We Lost The Sea – Challenger Part 2 – A Swan Song
Departure Songs, to quote the band is “inspired by failed, yet epic and honourable journeys or events throughout history where people have done extraordinary things for the greater good of those around them, and the progress of the human race itself.” It’s a beautiful album and this is a gorgeous final track.
Sleepmakeswaves – Perfect Detonator
Changing gears with Sydney’s Sleepmakeswaves. They have a new album that’s about to drop but Love of Cartography (which, shockingly has just turned ten years old) remains a favourite both in terms of its tunes, title and cover art. Australia Post should be setting a copy my way imminently as my CD copy has suffered an unfortunate fate.
Meniscus – Simulation
Hard-hitting, sweeping, tender… and all in one song. Meniscus’ Refractions album was a few years back now but is always worth a listen.
iiah – 20.9%
iiah have seemingly called it a day. Which is a shame as their last album Terra was exactly the kind of filmic stuff with a nod to the cosmos I love.
Bear the Mammoth – Freshwater
I’m not gonna lie; sometimes it’s the name that gets me listening. That was definitely the case with Melbourne’s Bear the Mammoth but I stayed listening the tunes and, particularly, the drums.
I receive a notification here a few days back (not quite a dozen) that I registered this blog twelve years ago. That’s quite a while ago though my current lapsed-blogger status means that there isn’t quite the multitude of posts that duration would normally indicate.
With both these facts in mind and that I didn’t get around to adding to the plethora of ‘Best of 2023’ lists that hurtled around December and early Jan, I thought I’d use this as an occasion to mix things up a little and share a dozen things within this blog’s wheelhouse that stood out in those twelve months of last year.
I’ll kick off with live music as the first point. Catching My Morning Jacket live, on the first show of their European tour and first in the UK for something like a decade, was an absolutely joyous experience. Live albums and their reputation as a great live act built the expectations and they thoroughly delivered. A belter of a Z-heavy set that kicked off with ‘Gideon’ and circled favourites like ‘Anytime’ and ‘Holdin’ on to Black Metal’ as well as ‘Touch Me I’m Going to Scream Pt.2’ made it magical on many levels but chief amongst them was that it was a rare date night with my wife and it’s a song that has a lot of personal connections (If you’re interested I chatted to the wonderful Geoff Stephen about just that).
If I think of films across 2023 my thoughts turn to those that I’ve added to the ‘to watch’ list but haven’t gotten round to. It’s safe to say that it’s more down to finding time – ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ looks like the mutt’s nuts but finding time for that or ‘Oppenheimer’, for example. I did start ‘The Poor Things’ but that didn’t sit well with me and I’ve yet to return to it a month on. The same, sadly, can be said for ‘Asteroid City’. Then again, of the couple I caught at the cinema rather than the couch, a real stand out was ‘The Boy and the Heron’. I fucking love a Studio Ghibli film and while it’s just over two hours long it’s just gorgeous in so many ways. I adore ‘The Wind Rises’ and thought that a beautiful ‘farewell’ from Hayao Miyazaki but if this is a thing to behold even if it isn’t his final film afterall.
We also caught Seth Rogen’s take on those heroes in a half shell ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem’ – a cool visual style and a great slab of nostalgia but the really cool stand out point for me was the soundtrack and how it leaned into that great ’90s hip hop era of De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest and its efforts to introduce these to a younger generation of ears meant my son has been requesting them so the turntable will often be occupied by just that.
It’ll come as no surprise that I listened to a good chunk of post-rock in 2023 and it was also the year of much-anticipated new music from two acts within that genre so, counting for two of these twelve points were the new albums from Explosions In The Sky and Sigur Rós, both of which followed lengthy gaps between studio efforts. While very different to each other, both End (for which the preceding announcement of End Tour caused many a concern that they EITS were calling it quits) and Átta (it’s Icelandic for ‘8’ as this is Sigur Rós’ eighth album) were well worth the weight and delivered what makes each of them great in spades.
I’ve slowed my reading of late, tackling heavier and heftier books that take a bit longer to chew through so I’m averaging maybe 25 in a year. On the fiction front a couple of stand out points were both books I was drawn to at random. Natsuo Krino’s Out is a slab of Japanese crime fiction that’s both familiar and yet like nothing I’ve read before. It’s the story of four women with hard lives that work the graveyard shift at a bento factory and how a random act of violence – one of them kills her husband – and the subsequent involvement of the others to dispose of the body and hide the crime. It’s an absolutely brilliant contemporary novel and I’m keen to find more of her work.
2023 was a year of more travel then in previous years, all of it aided by boat. I took (and take) as much advantage of the ease and cheapness (a return crossing in the car costing less than a return for three to London) of getting over in the ferry and where you can be within an hour or so of driving. However, while on a cruise in the Med and having finished the books I’d taken with me I found myself staring at the cover of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man in the ship’s library. How this hadn’t cropped up in my reading to date or at uni all those years (ok, decades now) ago I will never know but holy-fuck what a book. As the blurb says “one of the most important American novels of the twentieth century.” I hadn’t finished it when we arrive back in the UK so drove into town the next day and picked up a new copy from the bookshop so I could do so asap.
Sticking with books(ish) for point 8 of these 12… I found myself with an itch to find out more about the Vietnam War last year. After finding they’d been removed from Netflix I located episodes of Ken Burns’ ‘The Vietnam War’ elsewhere and proceeded to reabsorb. But that wasn’t enough to scratch that itch. In a couple of bookshops in Oxford I picked up a few books I’d been on the hunt for. As with the WW2 books in my library’s history section, I’ve found it’s the personal accounts that make the most enlightening and gripping of reads but I really can’t abide those ‘guts and glory’ takes. So, along with the brilliant If I Die In A Combat Zone by Tim O’Brien, I picked up and hungrily devoured Robert Mason’s Chickenhawk and it’s that which is the standout point for me in the year’s non-fiction reading. More than ‘just’ a helicopter pilot’s diary this is an eye-opening account of what it’s like to fly over 1,000 assault missions in what was a clusterfuck-after-clusterfuck of a war and the devastating impact it can have told by a man that’s got a gift for detail and narrative. I know he’s got a follow-up out there and if I can get my hands on it at a decent price I’ll do just that.
Thanks to those aforementioned ‘Best of 2023’ lists there were a couple of late-year discoveries in what I guess was once the ‘Americana’ bucket that I’m oft inclined to look in, both from the same magazine’s CD of the year’s highlights and both from artists that have been around a while but never in my ears to that point. However, both Israel Nash and Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit’s 2023 albums got plenty a listen to as a result. Nash’s Ozarker and Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit’s Weathervanes combine what I like about that genre – great storytelling and a certain kind of heartland, big-sky vibe and, in both cases here, underpinned by some fucking tasty guitar work.
While I’ve mentioned a couple of stand out post-rock albums it’s worth giving a shout to some of those other albums of 2023 that got plenty a spin and stood out from the flock – there were quite a few great albums last year.
Slowdive’s Everything Is Alive was a real heavy-rotation holder. The second album of their comeback and while 2017’s self-titled album felt like a real victory-lap and celebration, Everything Is Alive pushes further into the electronic vibe that they’d left off with on 1995’s Pygmalion but with a warmer, lush sound aided by Shawn Everett (who’s engineered the likes of The War On Drugs) though it sounds like a key part of his job was in convincing Neil Halstead when to stop tinkering.
Blondshell – the musical project of Sabrina Teitelbaum – dropped her self-titled debut in the early part of the year and it got a lot of spins here even if its first-quarter release meant it got left off some of those end of year lists. Brisk and to the point (frustratingly she’d issue an expanded version later in the year with four new songs), Blondshell‘s nine tunes harken back to that ’90s angst and bite of Hole and PJ Harvey yet feel more like a contemporary reinvention of the vibe rather than an outright lifting of it.
The final point that I’ll make is perhaps surprising but then it was also that it was a surprise in itself that one of the albums I listened to most in 2023 was a new Foo Fighters record. I remember upon hearing of Taylor Hawkins’ passing that I figured the only way the band could go on would be with Dave sitting on the drums for albums and with a fucking good session player joining for live. Actually ‘replacing’ Taylor would’ve been unthinkable.
What I couldn’t have predicted would be just how fucking good But Here We Are turned out to be and how addictive I’ve found it. It’s not an occasion anyone would want to step up to but the Foos did just that and then some – Grohl lyrically wrestling with questions of grief, mortality and the big ‘what now?’ in the face of losing two people close to him against some of the most compelling and, frankly, brilliant tunes of their career. I’ve prattled enough about this album in a rare (for here) review so won’t do so again but having recently added both The Colour and the Shape and Wasting Light to my vinyl collection I’d say that this sits with those as one of the best they’ve made.
Bonjour mes amis et bon retour! As I stumble blindly forward with posting here I find myself once again starting off the week working from home and enjoying a post-rock soundtrack thinking “hey, it’s time for another one of those Post-rock Monday’ posts I used to try and do frequently”.
Given my affinity for our friends over the channel and the amount of time I’ve spent / spend there, it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that I love exploring their additions to the genre either. While I’m not as immersed in their output as I am of that of, say, Spain, I’ve found plenty to love.
Oh, and, as per, here’s another ‘handy’ definition of that most beard-strokingy type of music: “Post-rock incorporates contamination that covers the entirety of the music spectrum, from Krautrock to heavy metal, to contemporary classical and free jazz, often blended together in unique ways that bring new sounds to life; in fact, one of the most crucial features of post-rock is its ability to embrace a wide range of musical influences and combine them all into a coherent soundscape.” If that doesn’t put you off…
Post-rock bands love a good sample and poached dialogue, film quotes or specifically written interludes have popped up in tracks way back to the genre’s earlier days – whether we’re talking Iggy Pop’s interview snatch on Mogwai’s CODY or Godspeed You Black Emperor’s immense ‘Blaise Bailey Finnegan III’. Aside from the intended message or reason form the band’s point of view, from a listener’s perspective it can provide a little anchoring in a genre in which actual vocals are predominantly absent as well as lend a cinematic element to the tuneage. And sometimes they’re just there to make you fucking laugh (Romanian band Am Fost La Munte Și Mi-a Plăcut do a bang up job of this). The French are no exception to employing a good sample so here, in a few smatterings, a some of my favourite from the rich post-rock scene in France.
Lost In Kiev – Mirrors
Parisan band Lost In Kiev’s Nuit Noire is one of the first international post-rock albums I added to my collection. Its dark, looming epic post-rock intertwined with a spoken word narrative continues to hit every one of my tingle buttons some seven years on. Rather than lift from anything existing they write their own spoken-word pieces that are then used to give their work a massive, cinematic effect.
GrimLake – Everything Everywhere
GrimLake is Paris-based Mathieu Legros’s solo project. I’ve featured on of his tracks before in these pages and will no doubt again at some point as I’m a big fan of both his albums. JFK’s manner of speaking and the substance of his speeches make for a rich vein in terms of sampling and his address on Civil Rights is a pretty heady one to tackle but I reckon Mathieu pull’s it off.
Féroces – Qu’est-ce qu’on va devenir nous deux
(What will become of the two of us?)… Féroces are another one that use the odd slab of written dialogue to drive their thumping brand of post-rock forward. They’ve released a handful of EPs over the years, each named after, presumably, a character – but seem to have vanished of late, sadly.
As The Stars Fall – No Good Deed Goes Unpunished
I think there’s a rule, probably written down somewhere in Impact font, that sampling Christopher Walken automatically elevates your song to a higher level.
Have the Moskovic – L’inflexion des voix cheres
As part of one of the precious few New Year’s resolutions I’ve ever stuck with I’ve thrown myself into improving my French this year with daily lessons. Perhaps because of that but probably also down to the fact that it’s a bloody fine album, I’ve really been enjoying Have the Moskovic’s 2018 album Papier Vinyle.
Another Monday only this time to sit alongside the buzz kill of work I’ve got an emergency date with the dentist to add insult to injury. However, post-rock is once again providing a comforting tonic and as I prepare to set sail for summer in less than a week I’m enjoying a volley of offerings from Spain where we’ll be touching shore twice in the coming weeks.
Once again I’ve tried to find a way of summing up the genre and have found this handy yet daft and pretentious explainer: “Post-rock generally applied to bands that used the typical instruments of a rock band—two guitars, a bass, and drums—with nontraditional rhythms, melodies, and chord progressions. Guitars created ambience by altering the colour and quality of the sound. Vocals, if they were included, were frequently treated not as a vehicle for lyrics but as an additional instrument. The focus was on the texture of the music and the sound produced rather than on melodic patterns and the basic structure of a rock song. Embracing “quiet as the new loud,” post-rock shifted away from the hard, male-driven outbursts of rock music as that music became more commercialised; post-rock and other alternative genres were more independent and less commercially oriented.”
I’ve mumbled before about how I love the universality of a genre that doesn’t rely on words and can, accordingly, be created whether those inclined to do so happen to be. Spain, particularly, has proven to be a real treasure chest of great post-rock bands and with a real sense of variety across those. My way into it came by chance when I found the website for AloudMusic – a label and distro operating out of Barcelona and championing all things of alt / post / homegrown bent. I’ve found through my admittedly non-expert ears that the bands from the Catalonia region lean toward the the melodic with bands out of the capital providing some almighty wallop. I’m probably wrong, as much exposure as I try to seek there’s undoubtedly more to learn.
Anyway, here’s today’s selection.
Toundra – Cobra
Probably the most widely-known of Spain’s post-rock bands and bringers of the aforementioned almighty wallop. Toundra hail from Madrid and formed in 2007.
Exxasens – Your Dreams Are My Dreams
Also formed in 2007, Exxasens hail from the beatific Barcelona. What I love about this band are that they typically have a space theme to their albums and that their drummer feels like he’d be equally at home in a hard rock band – I’d like to think that live he beats the shit out of his kit – propelling it along like bloody rocket yet never overpowering it.
Audiolepsia – Brain Fog
Another of those melody-first acts from Barcelona, Audiolepsia lean more toward the soaring guitar end. They’re a couple of albums in and while I picked up Muses from Aloud Music when is was put out with assist from another all-things-post championing label, Dunk!. Their recent Waves and Particles was self-released and picked up via Bandcamp, something which makes me feel like I’m kicking more coin to the band themselves, always a plus.
Jardin De La Croix – Intermareals
These guys come from Madrid and veer – see – toward the heavier, citing themselves as a mix of post-rock, post-hardcore, post-math and post-is-always-late. Maybe not the latter. Five albums in, the latest released on Aloud Music. This is from their 2016 stormer Circadia.
Astralia – Abyss of Night
It’s been a while since Astralia – formed in La Floresta, just outside of Barcelona – have released anything. Their two albums – 2017’s Solstics from which this track is taken and 2014’s Atlas – are great examples of the more ambient end of the genre (I’m not talking panpipe moods, mind, there’s still plenty of clout) and I hope there’s more to come.
Exquirla – Destruidnos Juntos (EN: Destroy Us Together)
Technically this is Toundra, again. Well, sort of. This is what happens when one of Spain’s most crushing post-rock bands finds itself on the same bill as one of the country’s flamenco singers, Niño de Elche. Fittingly – as I’m going to be revisiting the city shortly – the meeting took place in Cadiz. It’s one of those things that on paper doesn’t sound like a winner: the power and intensity of Toundra combined with flamenco singing. As it turns out it’s fucking GOLD. The album Para Quienes Aún Viven (EN: For those who still live) is one of my favourites and I’ll punch this up at home and in the car. I just wish they’d do it again.
It’s Monday again and I’m working from home and using a post-rock salve on the punch in the plums that first alarm beep of the week brings.
I’ve also got another take on defining a genre that – having grown so wide and varied – is as full of contradictions of such attempts as is examples: “[post-rock bands] rejected the traditional song structure of rock music, based on chorus and verses, guitar solos, and energised mood, for a more introspective, unconventional structure defined by broader sonic experimentation. In post-rock, subtle suggestions and atmospheres reign free, shaped in the form of the influences that define the band’s background.”
So far, so much chin-stroking.
A side-effect of the ‘typical’ post-rock track – starting quietly, building atmospheres and rising to crescendos – is that such tunes offer a great option for film makers. Think of your traditional classical score, a usually string-heavy arrangement that builds mood and tension, aims for emotional soft spots and can emerge from the background to reach a dramatic conclusion. Post-rock has provided just such a guitar-driven take in many a film….
This Will Destroy You – The Mighty Rio Grande
2011’s ‘Moneyball’ is – for someone who knows nothing about baseball – a surprisingly compelling film anchored by both its actors’ performances and some great pacing, helped along at one point by This Will Destroy You and a tune that also featured in films ‘Earth to Echo’ (never heard of it either) and ‘Lone Survivor’ in which Marky Mark Wahlberg leads the Funky Bunch on a treacherous hike across Afghanistan to a mostly post-rock soundtrack dominated by Explosions In The Sky.
Sigur Ros – Hoppípolla
One of those post-rock tunes probably heard more than any other as its stirring and euphoric arrangement has graced screens for a huge range of films and documentaries from the BBC’s‘Planet Earth’ to the serious, myth-busting ‘Eurovision: Song of Ice and Fire’ and that slasher flick about the time Matt Damon bought a zoo.
Mogwai – Autorock
Mogwai have created many a great soundtrack themselves – from the deliciously atmospheric Atomic, to scoring Les Revenants and Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait – eight soundtrack albums, in fact, stacked up against their ten studio albums ‘proper’. Using a soundtrack example seems a bit of an easy push though so I’m going with ‘Autorock’ from their fitth album Mr Beast as used in the Michael Mann take on ‘Miami Vice’
Now I’m gonna call an audible and pivot for two takes on post-rock using movies as I do love a good sample in a tune…
Explosions In The Sky – Have You Passed Through This Night
It’s been hotter than a bathroom used to stash boxes of top secret documents here this weekend and while today is a little cooler, the kick in the pills that is Monday is made a little more of a groaner thanks to reduced sleep.
So to ease into the week I’m soundtracking my day of working from home with some glorious slabs of post-rock.
Once again, here’s another borrowed attempt at defining the genre which you can enjoy / disregard / discredit as a witch-hunt as you see fit: “Post-rock is a style of rock music that foregoes common tropes like blues-based riffing, verse-chorus-verse song structure, flashy guitar solos, and storytelling lyrics. The typical post-rock song or post-rock album tends to feature unconventional song structure, extended instrumental passages, oblique lyrics, and influences outside of blues or classic rock.”
Here’s today’s selection:
Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Mladic
Some mornings you take a mellow, Kenyan coffee and savour it as the day begins. Some mornings you need to turn the espresso machine on and get a hard hit. Some mornings you can start with the melodic, some mornings you need the equivalent of Vulgar Display of Power‘s cover. Those mornings are what Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s ‘Mladic’ is for. Their 2012 comeback album (following a near-ten year hiatus ) Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend! is still one of my favourite albums full stop and ‘Mladic’ is just a real moment of ‘fuck this is good’ – from the sampled vocals, the middle-eastern vibe of the violin, the distorted drone-like thump and build of guitars and bass, the rise and falls, the dissonance and churning guitars and grungy power of it before breaking into an orchestral sweep still has me hooked throughout its twenty minute run time. Godspeed were one of the early pioneers of the genre and they still provide a benchmark.
Sigur Rós – Svefn-g-englar
Need a palette cleanser after that? How about something of ethereal beauty and one of the greatest tunes the genre has to offer? Pretty bold words, I know, but just as Godspeed represent one of the early trail-blazers of the genre’s heavier side, Iceland’s Sigur Rós lead the way on the melodic front and this, from their 1999 masterpiece Ágætis byrjun has been referred to as “a song of such accomplished gorgeousness that one wonders why such a tiny country as Iceland can musically outperform entire continents in just a few short minutes.”
We Lost The Sea – A Gallant Gentleman
Going for something a little more recent, We Lost The Sea hail from Sydney, Australia. That place with the bridge that Paul Hogan used to paint before arguing the merits of knives. In 2013 they lost their vocalist to suicide and the subsequent Departure Songs is a moving, soaring album of music inspired by ‘failed, yet epic and honourable individual journeys or events throughout history where people have done extraordinary things for the greater good of those around them, and the progress of the human race itself’ – including ‘A Gallant Gentleman’ which makes use of a girls school choir,’ Challenger Pt1 – Flight’ and ‘Challenger Pt2 – Swan Song’ – which has become a modern post-rock staple and is a thoroughly beautiful thing.
Lost In Kiev – Psyche
Over to France for Paris’ Lost In Kiev – I loved their second album Nuit Noire but took a little longer to warm to their next, 2019’s Persona which was daft really as it’s bloody good stuff. Adding more texture to their sound but still retaining their driving, heavy charge and love for spoken-word interludes, this time with more of a sci-fi bent than its predecessor with words that, as they put it ‘raise the question of the human nature through the artificial intelligence mask’. Post-Rock can get a little like that sometimes.
For the last couple of years Monday has been a locked-in work from home day for me. Aside from resolving a child care issue it also helps the start of the working week feel a little less of a kick in the nads.
It also means that along with access to good coffee, I have the opportunity to indulge in a post-rock soundtrack for my working day without the usual (‘it’s been ten minutes, how is this the same song?’ or ‘has it even started yet?’) commentary or need to stick headphones on.
For the uninitiated, the term itself came from a discussion of Talk Talk and Bark Psychosis – both bands that helped shape the genre from an early point. I’ll borrow from a couple of definitions here to explain it (dancing about architecture springs to mind at this point) as a “form of experimental rock characterised by a focus on exploring textures and timbre over traditional rock song structures, chords, or riffs” performed by a group of musicians leaning on the traditional ‘rock’ instruments / lineup: two guitars, a bass, drums, keys etc and, occasionally, vocals but applied to “nontraditional rhythms, melodies, and chord progressions.”
There’s a lot of beard-stroking.
Of the many things I love about it is the sheer scope and variety found within what can so easily be perceived as a narrow genre (with offshoots into math-rock, post-metal) and the universality of it – as occasionally pointed at in my Out of Europe series.
Anyway, without going too deep into a history or explanation of, I thought this a good moment to drop some of what I’ve been enjoying today:
Mogwai – The Sun Smells Too Loud
Mogwai, from Glasgow Scotland, are one of the titans of the genre. They got in early in ’97 and have been consistently belting out great albums (and soundtracks) since. The Hawk Is Howling is one of my favourite Mogwai albums – it’s their sixth – and recently added to my record shelves completing their discography on wax.
Explosions In The Sky – Logic of a Dream
Texans EITS are another pillar of the genre who have currently got their fans in a bit of worry: having ditched all other content on their social channels and announcing ‘The End’ Tour without any explanation as to what ‘The End’ is – curtains for the band or new album? We all hope for the latter – it’s been some time since The Wilderness – but touring and making money from music is becoming increasingly hard if your name isn’t Taylor Swift these days.
Pray for Sound – Julia
A band familiar to at least one reader – ‘Julia’ and Waves hits all the right spots.
Astodan – Sagdid
Astodan hail from Belgium. They’ve added a vocalist to their lineup recently but I’ve yet to check that out as I’m still stuck spinning their 2018 album Ameretat – few bands manage that dynamic of melodic, piano-driven calm to pulverising FUCK YES and back as brilliantly as they do across the album (or even one five minute song).
I haven’t revisited this series for a while. Last I dipped into this theme was 2021, in fact. Thankfully I’ve since been able to return to the continent and am already booked up to do so again this summer.
The stupidity and complete cuntwomblery that is / was Brexit has made it a little tricker – bit more faff at borders – but there is hope that this will soon change as the reality of just what a fucking twat of an idea it was becomes clear and the costs of that blue passport* become clearer cause climb down after climb down…. I’ll stop before this becomes too political again. Where was I? Oh, yes, with Italy on the cards again this summer this felt like a good opportunity to pull this one out of ‘drafts,’ blow off the proverbial dust, finesse and let it loose.
Italy is one of those countries I’d longed to see and doing so in 2011 was a fantastic experience. We’ll be going back this summer and getting to show the cub some of the wonderful things the country has to offer is something that fills me with immense joy. When it comes to culture and, particularly music, Italy is a touchstone and has given so much to us.
But, if this blog doesn’t touch on the expected classical (though Vivaldi is responsible for some of my favourite pieces), discuss opera or, as sure as the Pope wears a ridiculous hat and heads a shameful organisation, won’t add a Måneskin video – what has my digging into music from the footwear-shaped country yielded?
Red Light Skyscraper – 4AM
Let’s get things started with a little post-rock – because it’s usually my way ‘in’ to a country’s music lately. One of the joys of a mostly-instrumental genre is its universality and yet there are differences to be found in the genre from country to country as well as region to region in some instances. Red Light Skyscraper (yes, a very post-rock band name) hail from Siena and lean to a more modern (concise tunes vs, say, GSYBE!’s 20 min epics) and propulsive element, with a few choice samples here and there and some solid driving beats. ‘4AM’ (I’m a sucker for a song with a time in the title) kicks pretty fucking hard once it gets going.
Ennio Morricone – Gabriel’s Oboe
When it comes to film score composers Ennio Morricone, born in Rome in 1928, was one of the very best. Not as grand in sound as John Williams, say, but nobody could create a score as evocative or moving as Ennio Morricone – whether it’s the famous stand-off in ‘The Good, The Bad and The Ugly’ or the sheer emotional heft that lived in the swell of strings throughout the score from’Once Upon A Time In America.’ For me, though, very little beats ‘Gabriel’s Oboe’.
Massimo Volume – Le nostre ore contate
These guys have been at it since 1991, save for a temporary break between 2002 – 2008. Their vocalist has a sort of poetic, spoken-word approach to vocals (Italian sounding like one of the more poetic European languages vs, say, German) against a guitar and drum-driven instrumental backdrop that’s almost like post-rock in its build ups, rhythms and structure. All bloody good things and right up my alley.
Baustelle – Charlie fa surf
Now this one I’ve really been enjoying – it’s got a brilliantly upbeat, bounce to it, I really dig the vocal harmonies and it gets bonus points for, in what seems like a made-for-radio tune, including “andate a farvi fottere” (go fuck yourself). It’s always good to learn the important phrases when trying a new language.
Hailing from the Tuscan town of Montepulciano, Baustelle describe themselves as having an “extremely peculiar blend of Italian pop tradition, British pop (Pulp, the Smiths), and French chanson… mixed with 1960s naivety and 1980s imagery.”
Manuel Agnelli – La Profondità Degli Abissi
From what I’ve read there were a few big rock bands to come out of Italy during the ’90s. One of them was a group called Afterhours and this is a solo song from their singer Manuel Agnelli. ‘La Profondità Degli Abissi’ (the depth of the abyss) packs a lot into its three minutes and, even though I haven’t a clue what he’s singing about, it’s an all-out bonkers-yet-brilliant cracker and I really dig the way his vocals build up and soar off with strings.
*I had to update my passport on return from France last year and reluctantly traded in my ‘EU’ passport for the dark blue one but take great amusement from the fact that, inside, it bears greater resemblance to the EU ID cards than anything ever before
Here we are on week eighteen of January and it feels like a suitable moment to take stock on what – in between sunning myself on tropical shores and spending my money on fast women and slow horses – I’ve been punishing my ears with this last week or so.
Camp Cope – Caroline
I’d seen Camp Cope’s 2022 album Running With The Hurricane crop up on a few ‘best of year’ lists recently and have spent this week hooked on it. It’s absolute cracker.
Alexi Murdoch – Through The Dark
Occasionally I’ll flick on an episode of something while I’m chewing down my lunch (usually in between the second and third meat courses while the servants are refilling the wine). I recently flicked on an episode of ‘House’ in which this song featured and I found myself captivated by it – in a way it recalls those moody acoustic bruisers that Pearl Jam would drop in their middle period.
Laura Cox – So Long
‘Half English – half French, 100% Rock n Roll’ is how Laura Cox describes herself. All I know is I’ve been digging her new album of late – she fits into that blues rock vibe with a nice meaty tone.
Tori Amos – Pretty Good Year
I’ve been spending a lot of time with Tori Amos’ first couple of albums since 1357’s appraisal of Little Earthquakes and they’ve both been rereleased in pretty coloured vinyl packages recently too. My cassette versions of them are holding up ok so I’m not about to drop coin on replacing them but there’s genuine gold in those albums. Related question: does anyone burn cds anymore?
Russian Circles – Ethel
The whole Memorials album is strong but there’s something so transportive about ‘Ethel’ that it’s a regular player on my Post-Rock playlist. I know, even as a lover of the genre, some post-rock tunes can hang around longer than an unwanted politician but this one is in, out, done in just four minutes of brilliance.
Slowdive – Slomo
Speaking of transportive…. I’v played Slowdive’s Slowdive more times than I can count since it joined my collection at the tail end of 2021 and it was only a week or so ago that, when slipping the lp back into the sleeve, I realised it had a download code in there. Since then it’s been on the regular in the car too – there’s something immediately soothing about ‘Slomo’ in particular that makes it as an ideal to cue up for the drive home as it does chilling out at home after a hard day’s drinking and hitting the pipe.
Mumbling About... 