Efrim Menuck, one of the three founding members of Godspeed You! Black Emperor and principle songwriter of A Silver Mt. Zion, has decided to branch out into yet another project, this time performing under his own name. With Play ‘High Gospel,’ Menuck flirts delicately with elements of his other well-known bands - the sounds and compositions, while still evoking that unmistakable Montreal feel, still manage to stand apart from other bands of the scene. The songs definitely tend more toward ASMZ than GY!BE, but do not fall so close as to be mistaken for mere Zion rejects.
Menuck’s characteristic yelp is used to great effect on both the opening and closing tracks, while the middle of the album is occupied by vaguely-folkish numbers, washed-out singalongs and ambient drones, all cutting through the rough, lo-fi production. The album is relatively light on the lyrical content, but radiates an intimate, personal aura.
“Meandering” is most definitely an applicable adjective; in fact, if there is one complaint that I would lodge here, it is that the album seems almost to simply begin and the flitter away without any real climax. While this would be a critical flaw to some albums, Menuck manages to pull it off effectively enough that it doesn’t tarnish the overall work.
Earth is certainly not a new name to the music world; Dylan Carlson and a revolving line-up of musicians have performed under the name since 1989 (at one point, the band even featured Carlson’s long-time friend Kurt Cobain as a collaborator). The project is probably most well-known for its early nineties releases which introduced the world to the genre known as drone metal, but in the nearly 22 years since Earth began, their sound has evolved and changed greatly.
Continuing in the same vein as the group’s two previous releases The Bees Made Honey in the Lion’s Skull and Hex: or, Printing in the Infernal Method, their latest album, Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light 1 finds Carlson churning out more brooding, western-styled post-rock with fantastic, repetitive and twangy guitar, upright bass and moody, stylish drum work. One notable difference from their last output is the addition of a dominant cello voice which carries much of the melody that is to be found here, dancing in between the solid and uncompromising grooves produced by Dylan’s guitar.
Earth is one of those kinds of bands who never limit themselves to a single gimmick or defined style, and are able to not only make it work with each successive release, but whom actually seem to get better with age.
The blog is back- and in observance of Halloween, I have decided to upload one of my all-time favorite ambient albums, Mark McGuire’s “An Old Hag’s Cackle II.” Some might already be familiar with McGuire from his work with the drone band Emeralds (whom I will probably cover here sooner rather than later), but for those who do not have any experience with either, I highly recommend Emerald’s most recent LP, “Does it Look Like I’m Here?” McGuire’s solo work is similar to what he has done with Emeralds, but is noticeably more guitar-driven than his band’s synth-oriented sound.
“An Old Hag’s Cackle II” was a limited, cassette-only release with one track on each side of ethereal, guitar-based drones and well-placed samples taken from “A Disney Halloween,” a now impossible to find TV special from the 80s that was aired on the Disney channel every year throughout the 80s and 90s. For anyone who has seen this special, the album is a terrific bit of nostalgia, but also serves a wonderful bit of engaging and enveloping, but still very soothing drone music. Festive and seasonal, yet still cathartic.
Happy Halloween, everyone.
In the case of post-rock, the genre itself is so vaguely defined that there are a potentially infinite number of different approaches to it (which is what makes it such a fantastic genre of music); many bands have taken their cues directly from the pages of the gospels of Mogwai and Tortoise, while others have chosen to fuse post-rock with other genres such as ambient, breakcore, drone and jazz. Still others choose to play in a manner more directly influenced by minimalist composers such as John Cage and Steve Reich; a perfect example of this approach being certainly one of the most universally respected and awe-inspiring post-rock bands of all time- Godspeed You! Black Emperor.
In the eight years between the beginning of Godspeed’s self-imposed hiatus and the recent announcement of their reunion, the band has been hoisted up onto a pedestal by fans and critics as the pinnacle of what post-rock should be; the golden standard against which all other acts are judged. Some have described bands as being similar to Godspeed, however, most of these comparisons fall short. The only band I have come across who have been compared to the mighty Canadians and who can actually live up to the hype is New Jersey’s Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles.
While it is true that the band takes direct stylistic influence from Godspeed, to say nothing of them more than that they are the best GY!BE clones out there wouldn’t do the band justice; the four lengthy, spacey compositions that make up the band’s 2008 debut, A Boldogsag Minden Remenyet Elragadtak, take the listener on a journey through some truly dark places, with hardly even a glimmer of hope to be found amongst the eerie sustains and tense soundclips. The album’s emotional impact is difficult to describe, as it is a pure synthesis of the political and social with the dark and the foreboding- perhaps one of the most unsettling things about the album is that of all of the music I have come across it is one of the truest artistic reflections of the world in which we all live, and it is frightening to think that our world could really be this lonely.
There are many genres out there which have a defined, accepted formula- downtempo is one of these. Marked by swirling layers of ambient sounds and laid-back, compressed drum grooves, downtempo music is rarely bad, but at the same time, can often be simply dismissed as another attempt to rehash Boards of Canada’s Music Has the Right to Children. However, on his 2006 album Tokyo, Michael Luckner stands out boldly from the chilled-out masses, taking the genre in an inventive direction.
His solo project, Guitar, infuses into the downtempo landscape the delicate, serene feel of Japanese traditional music, juxtaposing the genre’s characteristic compressed drum shuffle against the bright sound of the koto and other traditional string instruments, as well as the subtle, melodic vocal work and digital contributions of collaborator Ayako Akashiba. Tokyo is everything one could want from this genre- it is soothing, cathartic, enticing, catchy, and simply beautiful music.
At first listen, Child’s 2006 album Yui didn’t strike me as anything particularly special; it seemed like decent enough, but not particularly mind-blowing post-rock with ambient touches. However, the second time that I decided to put the album on, as I was listening to the song “Reki,” I noticed something: a soundclip of Gendo Ikari from the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion. Now I, being the total Evangelion fanboy that I am, found myself listening much closer throughout the rest of the album, then once it was over, I listened to it all the way through again.
What I had failed to notice initially was the prevalent NGE theme that runs throughout the record, but now that the record had captured my attention and forced me to listen more closely, it wasn’t merely Evengelion references that I began to notice on my third time through the record, the close attention that I was motivated to pay had wielded an unexpectedly multi-layered composition of surprising depth.
The album’s dreamy atmospherics, which as mentioned earlier fuse post-rock with a warm, enveloping ambiance, take the listener on a free-flowing, caressing journey that inspires serenity and calm, as well as provokes meditative, even philosophical thought.
I’m aware that I normally talk about post-rock, drone and other more atmospheric stuff here, but for the past month or so, I’ve been listening to this fantastic album repeatedly, and I thought it only appropriate to share here.
Good Luck’s 2009 debut album, Into Lake Griffy, is a shining example of the cathartic and irresistibly catchy power of emo; with clear nods to the early nineties’ second-wave sound, Good Luck take charming punk music and intertwine it with heart-felt lyrics that reach out to the listener in a way that very few artists are able; as lead singer and guitarist Matt Tobey shouts over the band’s bright, uplifting music- “Forget what they’re telling you kid, you’re not alone.”
Although Red Sparowes are nothing new to the world of post-rock, their latest release, The Fear is Excruciating, but Therein Lies the Answer, is exquisite, and well worth mentioning.
The band’s previous efforts have all tread the line between rock and metal, but with this new album, the band shows more of their lighter side, preferring instead to focus more on the beautiful melodies and atmospherics that permeate this album, to great effect.
Beginning with a very subtle and unassuming introduction, the album leads through a voyage of meandering, brilliantly orchestrated instrumental rock, spanning the spectrum of emotion and making seamless, near-perfect transitions between moods. The album’s only real weakness is it’s length; forty minutes is a bit short for a record (especially a post-rock record), but when those forty minutes are as lovely as these, it’s hardly a problem.
As I’ve mentioned before, I like to find post-rock musicians who utilize aternative voices in their music, by which I mean strings, wind instruments, unusual percussive sounds, things not typically heard within the realm of rock music. These Songs We Sing Will Fade to Silence, the debut album by Álfheimr, a solo post-rock project by musician Madison Asche, makes use of these different sounds, combining heavy string orchestrations, delicate piano and shoegazy guitar work into vivid soundscapes.
The music is prone to sudden, dramatic shifts in mood and volume that range anywhere from a hardly distinguishable softness to powerful walls of sound, and although the songs themselves are quite gorgeous, I find the instrumentation to be among the most interesting I have ever come across within post-rock, including some sounds, about which I could only guess (a muted vibraphone, and a pan flute exposed to tremendous amounts of delay effects?). Either way, it’s truly wondrous music to behold.
To anyone who may be following this blog, I am sorry it has been about two weeks since my last update, but lately, I haven’t found much new stuff that has truly grabbed my attention and demanded immediate action.
When I decide which music I should discuss here, I try to look for music that is not only wonderful, but also innovative and original; that’s not to say that I don’t enjoy more “formulaic” music, but there are few things that I love more than a group of musicians who can produce art that is both pleasing, and challenging, which is precisely what I feel This is my Normal State is.
A relatively new band from Bristol, England, This is my Normal State released their debut EP, Angel Falls ++, in October 2009, and, to be quite honest, it is rare that a band, not only with their first album or major production, but with their first release period, are able to so successfully leave a lasting impression on the listener.
The band’s sound is takes lovely, echo-laden guitar sounds and subtle string work, and synthesizes them perfectly with ethereally haunting, minimal vocals, creating blurred textures that would serve as a perfect background to a walk through a lonely forest, as snow slowly fell.
