PG. LOST

Evolution. This is what pg.lost is about. From humble post rock beginnings, this is a far more complete album, with assured pieces of music, accomplished playing and almost, dare I say it, a swagger of confidence. It kicks off with The Day Shift which, to me, is more prog rock than post rock. An energy filled monster of a track that is driven by guitars, ethereal vocals and a great rhythm and throws down the gauntlet of expectation. The pace is slowed down for Head High, which is a slow builder of repetition and layers, with nice use of violin in a piece that reminds me that I'm listening to a Scandinavian band. Pascal's Law is more traditional post rock, but that doesn't put me off, because the band never forget that 'rock' is one half of the term post rock - they do like their snare drums on this track. Maquina is a song that builds to a great climax; a slow burning piece of music that like many other pg.lost tracks lulls you into a false sense of security, before unleashing a rock monster. You just breeze along, noodling guitars, soft and delicate background vocals contribute to a really lovely song and then BAM, it hits its mark and delivers the punch. Jonathan is the antithesis of Maquina, it starts the way it means to continue - with pounding drums and haunting guitars before it settles down into a groovy rhythm before rebuilding for a what you think is a final crescendo, before going off road and entering into some ambient piano weirdness. And finally Siren, a monster of a track that has all the trademarks of a pg.lost record; it starts quietly, and slowly builds into a plinky guitar and synthesiser track that wouldn't seem out of place on an electronica album. This almost burns itself out at the 5 minute mark, before re- energising itself with almost audible vocals that almost makes it feel like a pop song rather than a post rock classic and then around 9 minutes it opens up the throttle, turns the amps up to 11 and lets fly, before burning brightly and dying. The bonus tracks, Yes I Am and Kardusen, both on the Yes I Am EP and have a feel of a less mature band. musically both tracks are superb, showcasing just how competent these musicians are; even in these early days they knew how to construct good songs. This isn't an album for die hard post rock fans, but the term post rock can apply to all manner of diverse styles within the genre. I do think there's an element of proggy shoegazing in this band; a degree of modern music grooveness and are something to be heard and decided for yourself; not a band to be taken on recommendations. There are many places you can hear their stuff - seek it out and give it as chance!

Once again, an album that exemplifies post-rock cliché has been produced. Performing the same chord progression (or single notes) over and over again while doing relatively very little with it doesn't require much collective talent, to be frank. If you ask me, a musical phrase repeated ad nauseum is the opposite of the spirit of progressive rock. In Never Out is yet another album from the genre I'd call boringly beautiful.

"Prahanien" Starting with a single, repeated note (somewhat reminiscent of Pink Floyd's "Echoes"), subtle drumming and other music eases in from underneath. Half of the piece carries on in this fashion until a new chord progression arrives to be repeated, only this time with crashing, sputtering single guitar notes in typical post rock fashion.

"Jura" While also using the same chord progression throughout much of the piece (as well as the abovementioned guitar technique), this introduces a delicate piano to compliment the sound. The guitar frequently bends out of key, which can be irritating.

"Heart to Hearts" Frail guitar calmly opens this gentle piece. It will send the listener to sleep, and then suddenly rouse him with one obnoxious, heavily distorted chord that sounds like it was put there to make him go deaf if he were listening for the first time through headphones and had turned up the volume to hear the subtle, sleepy guitar work in the first three minutes. But if the listener still has his hearing, he will be treated to an upbeat and majestic second half.

"Still Albright" Beginning with light guitar again, this one doesn't pull the dirty trick the last one did. It is, however, sleep-inducing, as there's not much new going on compositionally, just additional layers of instruments and noise applied to the same skeleton.

"Crystalline" Basic, straightforward drumming underlies a guitar playing the same few notes over and over again for three minutes. While the drumming remains, other guitar layers are added, which maintain the repetitive air. Everything ceases midway through, allowing for a short, low guitar interlude. Then it's back to the business of monotony.

"Gomez" Once again making use of pleasant layers of guitars, this final piece has a somewhat cinematic feel- too bad it suffers the same fate as everything else on this album, namely prolonged tedium.

This EP worth getting for its title track alone!

But if you're lastfm user, don't bother much then: it's downloadable for free there ;) 'Yes I Am' is a magnificent essence of any Post-Rock epic like YNDI HALDA's breathtaking 'Dash and Blast' or MONO's 'Yearning', for instance, but only 6 minutes long! Well, this even doesn't ruin the whole atmosphere, believe me. The problem is that other tracks were made by using the same structure (and even chord harmonies, I guess), so the further we go the less interesting the whole stuff sounds. The closing 14- min long epic is in fact 6 minutes shorter (gosh, I hate hidden tracks!). Nice and listenable band from the second or even third wave of Instrumental Guitar-Driven Post-Rock, inspired by EitS and MOGWAI, but not essential, I think. Fans of FOLLOWED BY GHOSTS, MOONCAKE, CASPIAN and hundreds of other bands of that kind may bother though, and I even insist, they SHOULD check it out.

Pg.Lost is a four piece post rock band hailing from one of the most musically fascinating places on the planet: Sweden. This is the country giving us the Prog giants Opeth, Pain of Salvation, and the Flower kings (surprisingly enough, I don't really listen to any of them to much), not too mention the sheer number of extreme, folk, and experimental metal bands, including one of my all time favorites Cult of Luna. The strange thing about this country though, is their surprising lack of post rock bands, besides September Malevolence, pg. Lost is almost alone in this country of great underground music.

Regardless of how surrounded they are by post rock bands, this group knows the formula, and they know it well. The music is very derivative of bands like Mogwai, with build up's, then break downs to a barely audible guitar, then everything will jump back just as soon as you drop into a gaze. They also know how to put the pretty element into it, their songs are beautifully textured and delicate, the recording quality is crisp and clear, and everything is mixed right, making this album a big gamble for the band if they were to make any dull music at all. Well, it payed off, the music is captivating, the guitars creating layer upon layer of rhythmic riffs with they're delay pedals, while a twinkling piano may be anchoring everything down in the background from drowning in delay. The best representation of this band is through the opening and closing songs of the album. The day shift starts very noisy, w=feedback, slowly diving way to a structured song, to break down, and then burst into an incredibly loud climax with distorted delay, and shoegazey vocals. Siren is more typical post rock, but with that being said, one of the very best post rock songs I have ever heard, that puts all other post rock songs into perspective. Mogwai has Fear Satan, Eits has Your hand in Mine, The Evpatoria Report has Tajin Kyofusho, and pg.lost has Siren. A twelve minute trip into some of the most blissful music you will ever hear, guitars bounce off each other as the wall gets louder and louder, hushed vocals come in, go out, then come in an octave higher, by this point you feel weightless, and afterwords, a very metallic climax comes, and exhausts the next three or so minuetes of the song. Best closer I have yet to hear in a while.

While a great album, I feel this band has a lot of growing to do, yeah the first song or two, and the last two, Jonathan and Siren are solid, but if you were to play me some of the songs in the middle of the album, I probably wouldn't be able to tell who was playing it considering how typical the music is to standard post rock. That being said, yes this band does play pretty post rock for the sake of pretty post rock, so I wouldn't recommend this to anyone looking for something off the grind, cause I can guarantee disappointment for them, and a two star review for this album. Good thing I can find a lot of enjoyment out of this kind of music, because this is one of the most solid of the year.

4 Stars