post-rock

Post-rock Monday: new shit has come to light, man

/ Tony / 4 Comments

Time keeps on slippin’, slippin’….

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.

You better, you better take cover: Post-Rock (Mondays) from Down Under

/ Tony / Leave a comment

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.

Post-rock Mondays: Post-rock français avec samples

/ Tony / 8 Comments

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.

Post-rock Mondays: Que viva España

/ Tony / 4 Comments

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.

Post-Rock Mondays: At The Movies

/ Tony / 1 Comment

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

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZTb8WxEW78

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

65daysofstatic – Retreat! Retreat!

More Mondays = Post-Rock

/ Tony / 4 Comments

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.

Mondays = Post Rock

/ Tony / 16 Comments

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).

It was that Wednesday when the storm was sinkin’ low… some mid-week tunes

/ Tony / 1 Comment

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.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHY2w9NO57Y

2022 en revue

/ Tony / 2 Comments

With January dragging its heels and with my usual sense of procrastination spreading posts out ever thinner, the time is probably past to look back at that music of 2022 that tickled my fancy. And yet…

In music terms, at least that which sits within this blog’s wheelhouse, 2022 was a bit of an outlier in as much as there’s not one specific album that stands out as ‘album of the year’ for me.

I listened to a shed load and, I’d like to think, broadened my musical palette somewhat if only geographically. Holding off on the ‘new’ stuff for a moment, it was 2022 that I took a deeper diver into Neil Young’s back catalogue. Having had my curiosity piqued by a compilation cd included with a magazine (one that wasn’t hits heavy) I also picked up his book ‘Waging Heavy Peace’ -typically I embarked on this journey as Mr Young pulled his music from Spotify and so I’ve been exploring his albums (from This Note’s For You thru to Mirrorball thus far) on cassette – this feels somehow appropriate to me. So Neil Young and, in particular, Ragged Glory was a pretty regular sound in 2022.

While it was released in 2021, Christone ‘Kingfish’ Ingram’s 662 was ‘new to me’ last year and got a shit load of plays from me in 2022 as both my son and I get a real kick out of his guitar tone. On a similar note, 2022 was the year I discovered Larkin Poe thanks to a random flick over to a different DAB station. Their 2022 album Blood Harmony is a cracking listen.

Thinking back there were a number of songs that stand out. A good chunk of these came from spending two weeks listening to the radio over in France – which is probably the longest I’ve consistently done so and stayed with the one station. The down side to that being that you hear a lot of Maneskin’s bloody ‘Supermodel’. The upside was hearing songs like Sting’s ‘Rushing Water’ and tracks like Adé’s ‘Tout Savoir’ and Marie-Flore’s ‘Mal barré’. Tracks that wouldn’t normally sit within my wheelhouse but their connection to a great memory means they’re in the mix for 2022’s favourites.

On the subject of individual songs, there were a couple of albums that I expected to like a lot more than I did which were home to some good tunes even if the rest weren’t quite up to muster. I’m thinking here of Eddie Vedder’s Earthling and songs like ‘Invincible’, ‘Long Way’ and Brother The Cloud’ which definitely sit up with his finest. I’d hoped for more from Regina Spektor’s first album in six years but Home, before and after wasn’t quite there. It’s home to a good few tracks though, amongst which ‘Up the Mountain’ got a lot of plays this year.

Anywho, if there wasn’t one particular ‘album of the year’ for me in 2022, there were a good few that stood out and got plenty of spins:

Placebo – Never Let Me Go

This was a surprise for me – I hadn’t bought a new Placebo album since Meds in 2006 but after hearing the lead of singles (including plenty of plays of ‘Beautiful James’ on French radio), streaming the album more times than I could count I actually bought the album toward the end of year and it’s a real solid, consistent return to form for the band that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed.

Melody’s Echo Chamber – Emotional Eternal

Apparently the aim of this album is for the listener to find their bliss while Melody Prochet searches for hers. This was another discovery via the radio and the album has had many a play over 2022 – there’s a lot to love on this melodic, psych/dream-pop record with hints of baroque, gallic and shoegaze sounds melding together and gliding along on a trippy vibe from start to finish.

Built to Spill – When The Wind Forgets Your Name

A new Built to Spill album is always worth checking in for – they seem to come along so infrequently these days – and this tight, taut and guitar-tastic offering from Doug Martsch (this time working with Brazilian band Oruã’s rhythm section) is a late-career stunner.

Big Thief – Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You

The idea that a band could consistently release such brilliant albums as Big Thief have done is bonkers – but then they did call their debut Masterpiece. Seemingly not content with two fucking great albums in 2019, Big Thief hunkered down at the tail-end of 2020 and spent five months recording songs in five different locations. The result, Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You is that rarest of things – a double album that’s essential throughout: spanning, as it does, the full range of Adrianne Lenker’s songwriting range while still highlighting the strength of the band as a unit.

Soccer Mommy – Sometimes Forever

All signs that Soccer Mommy’s new album was going to be a cracker were in place – the progression evident on Sophie Allison’s previous albums and EPs was evident and Sometimes Forever didn’t disappoint. Appropriately sitting next to last year’s album from Snail Mail in my collection, Sometimes Forever uses those guitar-driven, often slow-build / reveal, mood setters to offset intense and sometimes confessional lyrics to great affect. The pop-minded melodies, big choruses and electronic production touches make this her fullest sound and best yet.

Am Fost La Munte Și Mi-a Plăcut – La Vale

There were a lot of great post-rock albums in 2022 and while it’s a close call with Exxassen’s Le Voyage, Am Fost La Munte Și Mi-a Plăcut’s La Vale has easily had the most plays from me in 2022.

Hailing from Bucharest, their riff-driven take on post-rock has been a favourite of mine for some years now and La Vale is a fantastic slab of the good stuff.

I’ve even put together a playlist of those tunes that stand out as highlights from 2022 – some mentioned here, some not – in no particular order so probably best enjoyed on shuffle, should you be so inclined.

Should auld acquaintance be forgot…

/ Tony / 3 Comments

Despite another morning of waiting for the ice to dissolve from its windscreen before blasting the Ferrari’s mighty engine off of my drive and into the school-run and commute, the steady bead of afternoon sunlight in my eyes and the calling of the blogging urge has pulled me from my hibernation.

Where have I been? Fucking nowhere there’s a pandemic on and the rules change as much as that cockwomble-in-charge’s excuses do, triple-jabbed or not.

What have I been doing? The break wasn’t intended it just happened, maybe I’d lost my mojo, maybe I just needed to switch off a little. I’ve been reading a lot (potentially to be detailed later but Franzen’s latest was as excellent as expected, The Passenger is an amazing ‘lost’ novel rediscovered and Anna Karenina is proving the Russian beauty I wish I’d read sooner), using the festive break to watch films old (unlikely to be detailed later so Bad Boys 2 was as awful as I thought it would be, Face-Off has not aged well at all while Beverly Hills Cop is still a time-capsule joy) and new (Don’t Look Up suffers from split-personality only one half of which is very good, the other shite) of an evening instead of falling asleep in a cattle-truked daze. Oh, and watching Get Back*.

Of course, I’ve also been consuming music across as many formats and mediums as I can including catching up with some 2021’s finest. As Aphoristic Album Reviews points out in his fine summary of the year: putting together a list of a best albums during the year in question always feels a bit weird. What if your favourite artist surprise released a new album on Christmas Day? There’s also the fact that I don’t always get to absorb ‘new’ albums until that end of year break. Anywho, with that in mind and keeping it short and sweet, here are my five favourites of 2021.

Mogwai – As The Love Continues

Mogwai came out swinging in February with As The Love Continues. After the restrictions of 2020 (especially tougher in Scotland than here) gave them an opportunity to work distraction-free on their album, they produced one of their finest ever some 24 years after their debut and a very early and easy contender for AOTY. It bristles with great tunes, a warmth and thrust that they’ve not exhibited in a decade. A big hit with critics and fans alike it actually hit the top of the album charts here (surely that’s the first post-rock album to do so?),it felt too good to be true at the start of 2021 and, tens of plays later, still feels too good to be true at the start of 2022.

Snail Mail – Valentine

I was already hooked on this album on Spotify but after finding the vinyl under the tree this year I’ve fallen ever deeper under its spell (more reason to leave those lists until the year has passed). ‘Sold’ to me as a midway point between Hole and Lucy Dacus, Snail Mail’s second album is a glorious slab of 90’s inspired, emotionally fuelled alt-rock with real range and power.

Dinosaur Jr – Sweep It Into Space

The reunited Dinosaur Jr ‘classic’ lineup have now put out more albums than the three of their original run and one more than the various iterations of the band put out during its major label run. What’s surprising is that they’re still bitingly keen and putting out solid and inspired albums that always have plenty of great tunes on them and a lot of J Mascis’ always dazzling guitar solos. The addition of Kurt Vile as co-producer and occasional rhythm and acoustic guitar player has yielded one of their most sonically interesting and just plain-fucking-great-to-listen-to albums thus far and has been a regular spinner since it dropped in April.

Lucy Dacus – Home Video

I loved Lucy Dacus’ 2018 Historian. Why, then, it took so long for me to pick up Home Video is beyond me.. perhaps it was too much to listen to and too little time but, when my local announced a re-stock I made sure one of them had my name on and I’m glad I did: Home Video is just brilliant: Dacus goes from strength to strength here with an album richer in sound and more personal in lyrics – a compelling mix of alt-rockers and gut-wrench ballads.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor – God’s Pee AT STATE’S END

Two post-rock giants releasing great albums in the same year? Yup. Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress and Luciferian Towers were ok but didn’t move me in the way that ‘old’ GY!BE and even ‘Allelujah! Don’t Bend Ascend did… yet AT STATE’S END is a powerful return to that earlier form. Reintroducing found recordings and, like Don’t Bend… delivers two monumental slabs of post-rock with the band’s glorious build-ups from scratchy, static transmissions to crescendos that make your soul go ‘oh fuck YES! interspersed with a couple of drone tracks as if to cleanse the palate.

If this were a Top 10 it would also have included The War On Drugs’ I Don’t Live Here Anymore (a brilliant album that’s way too over-priced on vinyl to have been added to my collection and made the Top 5), Explosions In The Sky’s Big Bend (three post-rock albums in the Top 5 would be pushing it though), The Weather Station’s Ignorance and My Morning Jacket’s self-titled album while Ben Howard would’ve taken an honourable mention for his Collections From The Whiteout.

My favourite ‘Old Stuff Revisited’ release of 2021 is a tie between Tom Petty’s Finding Wildflowers and the re-cast Angel Dream (Songs and Music from the Motion Picture ‘She’s the One’) – that Rick Rubin helmed era of tunes from ’94 thru to 99’s Echo was a rich seam for Petty and these archival releases and new versions are like visiting a golden era and finding it even better than you remembered.

That was 2021… 2022 already has some promising releases on the horizon. I’m eagerly anticipating new albums from The Mysterines, Big Thief, Eddie Vedder (of course), Placebo (for the first time in a while) as well as ‘it could still happens’ like Springsteen’s Tracks 2 to name a few.

*Finding a way to summarise my thoughts on Get Back is likely to take a while