TRAVELS IN CONSTANTS (VOL. 21): THE RESCUE

The concepts aren’t developed all that much and the overall tone is more reserved than on the band’s previous studio releases, but ‘The Rescue’ is a pretty good representation of Explosions in the Sky for those who may not be familiar with their work.

The best thing about this EP of course is that it can be downloaded free from the band’s website, or at least it could be as of this writing. The record has also been released as Volume #21 in the TRL Travels in Constants series of recordings by a wide variety of post-rock, experimental and indie bands. Explosions, along with Mogwai and Low are probably the most well-known of the bands in the ‘Constants’ series so far, but if you have a chance to check these mail-order-only discs out you should – there are some very innovative and largely unknown artists represented on them.

Anyway, I guess this record was supposed to have been created as a tribute or reminiscence or something of an eight-day downtime the band had while touring a while back when their van broke down and took that long to be repaired. If you listen carefully to some of the spoken-word bits sprinkled around a few of the tracks you can hear them talking about this incident, and about being left stranded, bored and broke after it happened.

From an artistic standpoint the interesting points of the record include the fact the band says they didn’t write any of it in advance; instead, they improvised a track each day for eight days and then spent a week or so mixing it. As a result the tracks seem to be a slight bit disjointed at times, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. They also experimented with some new instrumentation, and although their website download doesn’t include credits you can hear lots of piano, what appear to be a little bit of programmed digital sound (but don’t quote me on that), and a few other unidentified percussive sounds. But this is Explosions, and the emphasis is always on the guitars, so fans of the band shouldn’t be put off by the foray into new instruments since they don’t do much to alter the band’s overall sound.

There’s not much that’s new here, and the tracks are considerably shorter than what the band typically puts out. But the concept is fresh, the guitar work very disciplined, and the overall package is worth a half-hour of your time. Three stars easily, and recommended to pretty much any prog fan.

peace