POST ROCK/MATH ROCK

Once again Menuck is joined by an army of musicians and vocalists who play everything from the standard rock guitar, bass, piano and drums to the more chamber rock appropriate cello, violin, trumpet, harmonica, mandolin and contrabass topped off by a veritable choir of backing vocals whose precision singing skills offsets Menuck's quivering vocal instability. In fact Robert Kennedy Jr? Is that you? LOL. While still considered a post-rock and musically speaking clearly follows in its own footsteps, this time around all those vocal tracks scattered around on the band's first releases suddenly because the dominant force.

In fact every track is song oriented and every song features an overdose of Menuck's hard-to-swallow vocal shortcoming, the boon to many (including myself) and the welcome accoutrement for others who can't get enough of that indie rock off-kilter singing bravado. In fact Modest Mouse comes to mind throughout HORSES IN THE SKY had that Washington based band delved into the world of sing-along post-rock campfire songs that is. In a way this album reminds me of all those gleeful songs we sang as kids in grade school with the music teacher playing her heart out on the piano while our underdeveloped innocent lyrical content came spewing from our less than professional musical mouths like an off-key choir struggling in its infancy.

Despite the innocence and childlike qualities of the sing-along sessions, the music is nothing but a serious matter with concert hall quality performances stealing the show whenever Menuck chooses to close his yap and let it all rise to the forefront. It's a welcome event indeed for those of us who find Efrim's best efforts to become a bit overwhelming throughout an album's worth of convulsing solfeggios punctuating the rich tapestry of sound like nails on the chalkboard. There's a bit of country hoedown feel to the whole thing as well as it evokes some sort of traditional bumpkin music in the USA Appalachians of the the early years of the nation's existence especially when the banjo comes out to play.

More chamber folk than post-rock this time around, this one will certainly test the patience of those who merely tolerated Menuck's vocal contributions on previous efforts and the worst nightmare of those who cringed every time he opened his big fat piehole. Musically the album is sweet and tender which contrasts greatly with the outrage expressed lyrical content which laments everything from war, prison life and myriad social injustices worldwide. In fact if you actually listen to the lyrics they are quite bleak and depressing, a stark contrast to the otherwise more uplifting musical score which belies the Godspeed and Silver Mt Zion trend of dark melancholic musical deliveries which occasional do overpower everything else.

The album is well regarded so apparently not everyone is as repulsed by Menuck's seismically unretrofitted vocal charm as i am and to be fair when his singing is subdued it's tolerable however most of the album finds him bellowing a pseudo-falsetto which makes me wonder if the whole thing is a parody of some sort or just a stylistic approach that offers a degree of separation from the competition and SILVER MT. ZION releases in general. Whatever the case this will be a hard pill for many to swallow but if vocal shakiness is not a problem then you will most certainly like this more than i do.

Another curveball in the zigzagging trajectory of uniformity, PRETTY LITTLE LIGHTNING PAW finds a somewhat streamlined lineup with only five musicians on board however the biggest surprise is that key members such as violinist Sophie Trudeau switches to the bass guitar and the increase of guitars, basses and percussion makes this what feels like a bonafide post-rock release rather than some sort of post-modern classical chamber folk hybrid. If that wasn't enough to set the SILVER MOUNTAIN clan in a firm creative footing, the band then played the recorded finished product on a boombox and then rerecorded it all again from that which gives it an unusually rougher than usual sound. Holy moly!

This EP is more on the surreal and ethereal side of the equation with the usual post-rock cyclical loops wending and winding in some cases such as the title track up to 10 minutes in playing time only fortified with everything from toy box music, and varying percussive click and clacks. Also feedback plays a major role in echoey chamber resonance and although Efrim Menuck's vocals are a hard pill for me to swallow, his performances here somehow melt right into the pulsating processions of the heavily orchestrated chamber folk atmospheres finding all the other members offering their own voice to the atmospheric majesty of the tracks. Menuck's vocals are made tolerable to me in most part though the modulating effect of an echo box and drowned out by the incessant manic swarm of sound effects provided by the instrumentation.

In a way the EP prognosticates the style of the next album with every track featuring Menuck's paranoid lyrical delivery accompanied by a purposeful out of tune backing singalong choir evoking the innocence of childhood only with the horror of awareness that the world is not what we were led to believe in our sheltered early years of grade school giddiness. The singalong sessions that feature a call and response methodology may be on repetitive mode but the swirling swarm of musicality that back it and often drowns it out altogether are what make this little EP a sweet little gem in the band's overall canon. All the weakness of the band (particularly Efrim's vocal style) is suavely pacified with all the right doctoring up and majestic ethereal percolating of the post-rock accompaniments is actually quite magical.

While i'm a fan of the first three releases, the following "Horses In The Sky" takes the approach laid down here and strips it down until only the annoying features dominate. In all honesty this EP should've been the next album with an extended track list of course because even though the overall direction is the same, this one features enough elements to guarantee that the focal point doesn't gravitate to the weakest link of the equation. I actually discovered this one quite by accident as i bought another album by the group but when i ripped it onto the my external hard drive it turned out to be the wrong CD but to my delight i loved it and discovered a hidden gem in the greater MT SILVER ZION musical reality. Now it's actually one of my favorite releases of all. A triumphant little musical expression that shouldn't be ignored.

THIS IS OUR PUNK ROCK takes the spectacle of SILVER MT ZION even deeper into extreme excess with an addition of Thee Rusted Satellite Choir which adds as well as the already expansive chamber folk backing that joined Menuck on "Born Into Trouble as the Sparks Fly Upward." And with four tracks that add up to almost 58 minutes of playing, what the ZION clan delivers this time around is another slice of cerebral slow burners dominated by lugubrious cyclical riffs that showcase the incremental tension that builds up to thundering crescendoes. Very much in the vein of Godspeed however Menuck intentionally steered his new project well away from any similarities other than the genre and captured the spirit of a 20th century classical orchestra that excels at multi-layered simplicity guaranteed to test the listener's patience.

With a much greater emphasis on vocals on THIS IS OUR PUNK ROCK, Menuck delivers his usual gruff singing style only accompanied by an amazing harmonic backing. The results give a larger than life presentation that takes the entire band project to new heights and while the musical flow is based upon simple repetitive melodic clusters, the ratcheting up effect and change of tones, timbres and dynamics are taken to post-rock's most outrageous logical conclusions with slow oozing chamber folk segments transmogrifying at glacial speeds into heavy fuzz guitar dominated noise-fest with percussion thundering that teeter on total chaos. And the best part is that once again Menuck delivers an album that sounds completely distinct from the one that came before through strong compositions and attention paid to every little detail.

Post-rock can really be one of the most difficult music sections in the modern world not because it's super complex like the knottiest prog albums of the past but rather because it demands a total focus on the minutia in order to fully comprehend its full magnitude. Menuck has proven his genius through a consistent flow of Godspeed and MT ZION albums that bedazzle and amaze in completely new ways and this third album continues that trend with four strong tracks that keep the initiated enthralled for its entire playing time. While i always find Menuck's vocals to be the weakest link in his otherwise flawless creative control, they never detract enough to keep me from loving his brilliance and on this third release he ratchets up the fire power of SILVER MT ZION several notches. Another brilliant release that doesn't end here.

This is an instrumental concept album about endangered species. A powerful and at times emotional album. We get the short intro track "Enter: Death Box" which is a sad intro for the next seven track with piano leading the way. Each track that follows is about a different endangered species and in the liner notes it details where each one lives and approximately how many are still in existence, how endangered they are and the habitat they live in. The final track is about humans and of course we are far from endangered and with over 8 billion or so of us we are just about everywhere on this planet.

A four piece of dual guitars, bass and drums these guys can play and I have always been attracted to their sound. They have brought in some guests to add piano, trombone, trumpet, cello, violin and lastly sax from SHINING's leader Jorgen Munkeby. "Blades" is about the Black Rhinoceros and is powerful and heavy right out of the gate. One guitar solos the other offers expressions. They don't let up on the throttle much on this one. "Kamilah" is about the Eastern Gorilla and while this isn't as heavy as the previous track it sounds amazing with the steady bass and drums while the guitarists do their thing.

"500 Years" is about the Greenland Shark and it's haunting to start out lots of atmosphere, quite dark then we get hit with a heavy and slow rhythm. I like the riffs later on. "Sloth" about the Pygmy Three-Toed Sloth has a different vibe with the sax and piano. And there is emotion late on this one for me. "Giants Leaving" is about the Wandering Albatross and it hits the ground running. Uptempo and on fire before setting back with post rock guitars.

"Blood Honey" is the longest at over 10 minutes and about the Long- Horned Bee. Just a great sounding rhythm here and post rock guitars. An interesting section around 3 1/2 minutes, quite inventive with the drums and guitars. I like the calm too around 5 1/2 minutes where percussion and bass stand alone but not for long. "Landless King" is about the Tiger and is one of my favourites. The cycling guitar, the atmospheric calm, the build and after 5 minutes were away, so good. "Erasure" is us, the humans. Far from being endangered of course and this is a killer closer at over 9 minutes. It ends sadly with strings which seems appropriate.

This makes a nice top three for me when to comes to this band. This fits in nicely with "Avoid The Light" and the self titled one. Bumping this one up.

Summarizing and fitting MIDAS FALL somewhere is relatively complicated, their music is a mixture of alternative rock, progressive rock and post rock, I would personally classify them as climatic rock in that there are calm passages and others on the contrary very rock, very energetic, the title track is therefore very representative of what I have just written. It is sometimes said that the voice is an instrument in its own right, that is exactly what happens here with the vocals of Elizabeth HEATON. Female vocals are an element that must be taken into account in the originality of their music.

The opening track "In the Morning We'll Be Someone Else" begins gently on the piano before the guitars appear tense and nervous, it's moving to say the least, a little Siouxsie side very present on the elegiac vocals of Elizabeth HEATON (9/10)."I Am Wrong" starts with tribal drums, the rhythm here taking precedence over the other instruments, it's almost post rock metal, here again it effectively cleans up the eardrums (8/10).The third track "Salt" is calmer at the beginning (fortunately in a certain way), this time it's ambient post rock wave, a tense atmosphere once again (8/10 ) from ECHO AND THE BUNNYMEN with MIDAS FALL sauce! "In This Avalanche" delicate piano at the opening, Elizabeth's diaphanous voice, superb strings, deep and cottony at the same time, the first soft track of the album (8/10). Change of register with "Point of Diminishing Return", a powerful electronic whirlwind, reminiscent of Thomas DOLBY or even Gary NUMAN and his metropolitan army, all in supercharged mode, my favorite piece on the entire disc ( 10/10).

"Monsters" which comes next, is the second calm track, magnificent high-pitched voice, lots of strings here again, high class melodic post rock which accelerates gradually, a cross between THE CURE and ECHO AND THE BUNNYMEN (already mentioned), the cream of the British new wave of the eighties with the sound of 2024 (9/10). "Atrophy" is probably the most ionesque of the pieces, where the vocal phrasing of Elizabeth HEATON joins that of Joanna HOGG, pleasant but one of the least exciting on the record for my taste (7/10). The title track which follows, the longest of the album, close to six minutes, engages in the same channel, ethereal vocals in a dreamy mist which soar well beyond from 1:24, evanescent without pun intended, the trills of six strings, mainly from Rowan BURN, burst out, even splashing on a mid tempo sprinkled with strings (them again) and percussions of real inventiveness, the second pearl of the work (10/10).

The last two tracks "Little Wooden Boxes" first of all, a calm, sweet singing, before the rise in tension of the guitar from 1:11 with vocals that rise higher, percussive handclaps, a climatic mid tempo, a bit like the whole album, which gets energized at 3:40 to close with powerful guitars, a wall of sounds (8/10). Finally the last one "Mute" is excellent in the melodic post rock genre, too short in my opinion, the listener is never satisfied (!), the unbridled synthesizers and the demonic percussions do tons to delight our ears (8/10).

MIDAS FALL, a revelation for me, it's never too late to catch up, I will nevertheless listen carefully to their previous productions.

Being a total pushover for dense atmospheres and a celestial voice, the very first seconds of "Bruise Pusher" nailed me to a proverbial cross of infinite salvation, as the tingling harp line intermingles with dense guitar swaths, walls of orchestrated string and a female vocalist by the name of Elizabeth Heaton that radiates both delicate power and shimmering beauty. The title track veers to a more electronic realm, with brooding, almost sinister bass tremors, the plaintive emanations from her sorrowful voice hitting hard and most of all, a constantly hopeful piano twinkle that serves to raise the spirit. The orchestrations again rule the waves, as the vaporizing water flood the ears. "Soveraine" segues perfectly into a heartfelt chant, each note expressive and meaningful in its fragility, guided along by the layered cello, as well as echoing guitar arpeggios, and a sense of eternity that just grabs at the senses. Imagine a proggier version of Portishead, Beth Gibbons was after all, one of the finest singers in music. This impression is most evident on the immensely seductive "Glue", featuring a magnificent performance all around, what with the electronic pace, the symmetric guitar rasps and that serpentine swirl of a siren sitting atop a rocky crag, beckoning the sailors to meet their fate. The denouement is just plain sublime. An exhausted piano serenely searches for a new avenue of expression, even more sedate than the previous commotion, "Sword to Shield" showcases a more orchestral chamber quartet feel that provides excruciating beauty to the arrangement, kneeling at the shrine of forceful emotional rapture and acceptance. Here again, the pained buildup of "Dust and Bone" emits an overt sense of vulnerability, hesitantly bold in a rather odd way, as exemplified by the percussive percolations of Ross Cochran-Brash's kit. This gem is followed ideally by a swooning voice that glimmers in the twilight, "Awake" suggesting that gentle rekindling of awareness that initiates every day, the consciousness of breath and senses. A pastoral deflection on the originally bright "In Sunny Landscapes", a peeling off layers of resistance, reflective in the mood variations and the basic simplicity of the arrangement, the heavenly voice firmly ingrained, the sweet orchestrations ruffling no feathers, and a perfect landing finale. As if wishing to define the notion of contrast, the cottony mist of "Lapsing" is like witnessing a solo piano dirge that slowly escalates out of its two-note torpor, a dripping cello expressing deep felt emotions and a bass furrow opting for even more undertow gloom, this tremendous piece is where the darker side resides. Somber, ghostly, and utter melancholy. Would you be at all surprised if the final track is the apotheosis of this album, fittingly encapsulating all the qualities that make this a sensational discovery? "Howling at the Clouds" is the stamp on your sonic passport, proving that you have entered the realm of the divine. After the childlike piano intro, the zither has its say, the reverberating drums echoing off the walls, trembling guitars that seem to shriek and bellow, setting the table for the vocalized mournful story, eventually stormed by the onsetting winds of despondence, scattering the clouds in all directions. A magnificent silence it all.

This was an overwhelming experience the first time I heard it and now, ten times in, it just keeps revealing itself to me as a prized masterpiece.

5 dehydrations

Especially in the second track "The Ascetic" we can be beaten by complicated polyrhythmic beats produced by Evan's drumming and Cameron's bass playing. The melody lines are also quirky and edgy regardless of repetitive psychedelic phrases but clearly make full use of ethnic appearances. Their vibes make an invasion into our inner mind so swiftly and drench us in such a muddy atmosphere at one stroke. It's excellent that complex melodic / rhythmic structures do not break nor dissect the mainstream of this song. Battles of drums and guitars in the following track "Immoration" are splendid too. Their sound unification is perfectly solid, precise and unwavering. We cannot help but be surprised at their productivity. On the contrary, the first shot "Prostration" sounds much more meditative and psychic than other ones. Three-minute meditation should be appropriate for our preparation to authentic heavy shoegaze-y psychedelia.

My favourite is "Disintegration" that gets started with a magical tribal chorus (or chant?), followed by deeply sticky sound venoms just like Dark Buddha Rising. Quite impressive and immersive we can notice as if our mindset would collapse and melt down to the ground. Kinda short track gives us colourful kaleidoscopic hallucinations. On the other hand the previous (and the longest) one "Levitation" gives us a powerful diversity veiled in depressive dissonance. We enjoy speedy distortions, quiet psychic fantasies, and funky punksy movements simultaneously in the song. What a gorgeous one. Another smooth straight bomb can be attached in "Derge", filled with a post-metallic atmosphere. This song might be the most straightforward one in the opus, I guess. Such purity is good too. The last "Rebirth" is a sort of problematic one (in a fantastic sense) ... the latter phase is full of Lachlan's fuzzy guitar grandeur and creepy whispers just like the end of a human life. This contrast drives us into madness again.

Recommended for fans of post-rock ethnicity and eternity.

Similarity in the kind of sensations and mental images that their music is able to raise. Despite being from the far East, it's only on track #5 "Rust" that we can hear something clearly oriental, and it's a beautiful track. Repetitive but not obsessing, melancholic but not dark on which the fretless bass enters unexpected and takes the lead for few bars before giving the stage back to the dulcimer.

This track would be enough to make this album a good purchase, but the whole album is extremely enjoyable, moving from dark ambient to newagey oriental flavors. The musicianship of this trio is remarkable. Drums and sometimes percussion create a perfect background on which bass and dulcimer take the lead.

The absence of guitars and keyboards is not perceivable. When some distortion is needed it's the bass that works as an electric guitar.

The production is very clean, and for this kind of music a clear production is a must. I think it could be used to test ampli and speakers by audiophiles.

I want to mention track #8 "Hide and Seek". even if it has a fast and strong rhithm, it makes me think to Vangelis with the chord progression, with the addition of a very fast dulcimer playing. It's incredible the way it sounds "full" even without a keyboard background.

A 4 stars album from a highly skilled trio.

While this EP isn't post-rock's most brilliant or experimental or innovative, it is beautiful and should not be underestimated. This is Young Mountain, California-based This Will Destroy You's debut EP(even though it clocks in at 36 minutes), and it is great. It is aptly titled, since the band was still maturing as they made this, but all the same, it is a peak in their discography. Characterized by soft, yet complex melodies centered around guitars and drums, this proves a fitting and enjoyable album for almost all lovers of post-rock. It soars through genres, from Prog Electronic, to Math Rock, to Noise. It is powerful, enjoyable, and worth the listen. Prog on.

1. "Sunbath" (6:31) sounds like heavy, plodding psychedelia to me! Then, surprise! Strings take over in the third minute's "psychotic break" /interlude. Instrumental break out at 3:00 with full Mellotron support and multiple guitars strumming away with their thick, heavy, psychedelic power chords; sounds a bit like one of their big influences, THE MARS VOLTA. Great vocal shift at 5:20! Good start! (8.875/10)

2. "So Much For" (6:36)sounds very much like something from one of 2022's KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD songs--even down to the cheery hip-drug culture lyrics--but then the chorus is almost closer to the BEASTIE BOYS! But the jamming session that it turns into for the second half (with horns) returns to a KG&LW sound and style. Nice song, I just wish it were a little more organized and flowing. (8.667/10)

3. "Shook" (I'm Often) (4:44) quite dull and monotonous. Not even sure how to describe this music except insidious and repetitive. (8.33/10)

4. "Seeds" (7:45) I LOVE the droning infinity guitar throughout. And the Kevin Richard Parker (TAME IMPALA) voice and effect for singer David Palumbo. Also, the sound palette reminds me of Boston's GHOSTS OF JUPITER. By far the best and my favorite song on the album. (14.25/15)

5. "Link" (2:40) sounds like a cover of a CLASH song! Or else one of MOTORPSYCHO's. (8.5/10)

6. "Water, It Feels Like It's Growing" (7:45) interesting stylistic synthesis turns out to be most similar to heroin-filtered THE MARS VOLTA music. I do like the band's experimentalism with strings, horns, and layers of synths and effects. (13.25/15)

Total Time 36:01

B+/four stars; an excellent addition to any prog lover's music collection--especially if you like modern stoner rock.