AVOID THE LIGHT

Avoid the cliches.

The Post-Rock crisis seems obvious when you're listening to a band like LDC. On the one hand, there's nothing awful about it, melodies are rare but memorable, riffs are heavy, instrumentation is satisfying, influences are clear (between TOOL and EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY), and if you're too snobby to fully enjoy the abum you may just take it as a nice background. On the other hand, 75% of Post-Rock nowadays sounds exactly like LDC, and dozens of new albums (filling blogs and forums every week) sound ALL THE SAME, the same heavy Post-Rock, faceless, emotionless, schematic, but hardly innovative or experimental.

It's a disease for the whole music world today, I hear you're saying, and it's hard not to agree with you. But good Lord, the genre, founded by TALK TALK's masterpieces, BARK PSYCHOSIS' ethereal croonings and GYBE's mournful dirges, turns into MTV-metal (with weird videoart instead of vocals/lyrics). Every new Post-Rock "wave" carries nothing new/fresh/interesting, just makes it more common and regular...so stop calling it Post-Rock then.

One of the great injustices of this site is that KATATONIA for some unknown reason is being kept off of it.They'd fit perfectly in the Experimental / Post-Metal genre with ANATHEMA, GREEN CARNATION, IN THE WOODS... and other like bands. Why do I mention that here ? Well to my delight Jonas Renkse the amazing singer for the great KATATONIA sings on one track here, he also wrote the lyrics. He is here courtesy of Peaceville Records. Just had to say that because Peaceville Records and KATATONIA go hand in hand. An amazing band. Anyway LONG DISTANCE CALLING is from Germany and with or without Jonas these guys are flat out incredible. Kind of a blend of Post-Rock and Metal really, which is right up my alley. These guys "rock" really hard, and they also like to build soundscapes. Nice job on the liner notes too, especially the way it unfolds to these 12" X 12" pictures on both sides.

"Apparitions" opens with what sounds like synths and keys that gradually builds until we get a full sound 2 minutes in. A calm 3 1/2 minutes in and then it starts to build again a minute later. Lots of atmosphere before 7 minutes as it settles again. It's building again a minute later. Here we go ! Riffs then a calm 11 minutes in to end it. Fantastic track ! "Black Paper Planes" opens with a dark atmosphere and I love it when it kicks in. Killer bass. Drums only before 2 1/2 minutes then the guitar comes in. Nice. It's building. Great sound 4 1/2 minutes in.The drumming is excellent. Heck it's outstanding throughout this album. Another great tune. "359" opens with guitar and bass sounds and then this relaxed beat comes in. There's that drumming again 2 1/2 minutes in. A change 5 minutes in as we get this catchy beat with guitar. It's building. So uplifting before 7 minutes.

"I Know You, Stanley Milgram !" is dreamy to open, almost spacey actually. No real melody until the drums kick in around 2 minutes. A full sound follows. Here we go ! It then settles 4 minutes in to a dark atmosphere. It's building and then it kicks in heavily after 8 minutes. Great sound ! Kicking ass 10 minutes in to the end. "The Nearing Grave" is where Jonas does his thing. It's restrained and dark until after a minute, vocals follow. Yay!! It's fairly laid back yet there's this powerful undercurrent. Amazing sound 2 1/2 minutes in. It settles again like the intro as themes are repeated. Love the guitar after 6 1/2 minutes. This is so moving for me. "Sundown Highway" features these heavy drums as it starts to build. It settles with drums 3 minutes in and they sound so good. It kicks in again. This is all too perfect. Just pure bliss 4 minutes in as they offer up this heavy sound. Check out the guitar after 4 1/2 minutes ! It starts to wind down after 7 minutes until acoustic guitar and percussion can only be heard.

For me this is right up there with the RED SPAROWES and RUSSIAN CIRCLES debuts.

I have a hunch that quite a few bands under the post-rock label are simply bands with great musical ideas (excellent riffs and what not) but lack confidence in writing lyrics or performing vocals, because so much instrumental post-rock music consists of what are effectively wordless verses and choruses- basically music that would serve as a foundation for someone singing lyrics, without really anything else happening. I could be wrong, of course, but I fail to see the purpose in crafting music that involves playing the same pedestrian riff or chord progression over and over again with minimal variation.

"Apparitions" While the opening piece remains beautiful throughout, the truly interesting parts are few and far between. Perhaps the only reason this track is twelve minutes long is because it is replete with repetitiveness- the same riffs played almost incessantly and with gradual adaptation. Thankfully, the band intersperses the loud, crunchy fare with gentler passages, but that alone is not enough to maintain my interest.

"Black Paper Planes" Tinny, atmospheric sounds begin the second track just before a gritty guitar riff takes over. A steady drum interlude with a simple synthesizer lead over it makes up the middle portion.

"359°" This piece begins pleasantly enough, and remains such, but the lack of any evolution concerns me- it's essentially the same chords over and over for two minutes, then there's a new set of chords to play for the next two minutes, and so forth.

"I Know You Stanley Milgram!" This is one of the heaviest pieces on the album, but again, it's taking the same riff and performing it until their fingers are numb and they are forced to do something a little different. This time, that something different is giving the bassist a solo and letting the guitarist play a few notes here and there over it. Over halfway through, there's a slow, kind of surf-rock thing going, but like everything else, it wears out its welcome.

"The Nearing Grave" The opening guitars on this track are expressive and carry a good tone, but once that business is done, it's back to mid-tempo heaviness. The featured vocals of Jonas Renkse add a modicum of vitality to an album that has been on life support. Even though his voice is mellow with almost no range, his presence on the rest of the album in some way could have proved to be a big help. The vocal work, completely sedated though it may be, really adds a greatly needed dimension.

"Sundown Highway" Moderate drumming begins the last track, as soft keyboards and bass enter. Various guitars play different lines, producing a rich sound, but of course, nothing worth looking forward to the next listen. The second half of the piece proper consists of a few interesting parts (mainly from the bassist and drummer), but the guitars rattling off the same notes twenty times in row is only worthy of a dismissive yawn.

This is I believe, how the 'post rock' sub-genre should actually sound. The album has a heavy, post-metal feel to it, has some experimental parts and some goodly tunes!

There are some elements of Pink Floyd and bands like Riverside in here and it does sound like they are actually having fun and enjoying the music they are producing - not too serious and shoe-gazey like some other post rock bands.

There are melodies, different tempo sections, hard basslines, the obligatory crashing guitar sounds and even some potential guitar solos!

Production is good and the whole experience is good - definitely an album that deserves repeated listening (and it may be that for some it requires more than one spin to fully appreciate it)!

I would consider this worth a 4+ rating overall but will give it just the four stars because there is still scope for improvement and I want to hear more future releases from this band as soon as possible.

What is it about the stupid names for these bands though? Is it some sort of in-joke? It can make it difficult to recommend this album to (mainly non-prog) friends because you almost have to apologise for the dreadful band name!

"Avoid The Light" is the 2nd full-length studio album by German post rock act Long Distance Calling. The album was released through Superball Music/SPV in April 2009.

The music on "Avoid The Light" is pre-dominantly guitar driven post rock with the two guitarists complimenting each other and playing countermelodies. The drumming by Janosch Rathmer is still a treat IMO. The man is a greatly skilled and busy drummer. The music on the album is fully instrumental except for the song "The Nearing Grave" which features a guest vocal performance by Jonas Renkse from Katatonia. It´s a good choice that Long Distance Calling have opted to include some vocals on the album because it makes the album more dynamic. The instrumental songs work well too though.

The production is professional and well sounding. Suiting the music perfectly.

I really hoped that "Avoid The Light" would make me appreciate Long Distance Calling more but to be honest I feel just about the same about this album as I did with the last. It´s a great album and I enjoy listening to the album on occasion but it seldom reaches the excellent mark IMO and thereby stays pretty much in the standard zone. If you enjoy melodic, melancholic and very well played post rock you might enjoy this a bit more than I do though and it´s definitely still a recommendable album even though I have my reservations. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

Second studio album released by this German band is a great one. I believe some readers will think I am joking, but I am really not!

Excellent melodies, excellent arrangements, excellent musicianship. If you want to know what the post-rock is just listen to this album.

For sure, there is the dark side of all this excellence. According to genre's rules, the compositions are repetitive enough, sound is well balanced, but on a very safe sound. And as so often happens in post-rock - almost no vocals. So - excellent classic post-rock album and average progressive album. Yes, both in one at the same time.

All recommendations are coming from the sentence as above: if you're heavy post-rock fan without wish to find some new horizons in that music - just take it! If you're newcomer to style and would like to know, what good standard post-rock is - take it! But if you're bored of all these repetitive constructions, very limited genre frames and millions of clones all around - this album hardly is your cup of tea.

Personally me, I believe this albums is more good than bad. Even without experiments, this music is great whenever perfectly played and composed.

Usually I find most of the post-rock bands a bit annoying. It depends on the mood for sure and sometime a post-rock trip is not a bad thing. "Avoid the light" has that heavy part which is not present on most of the post-rock sound scape. So this was a good surprise, nothing out of the ordinary but good, melodic and catchy songs. As a standard in post-rock all 6 songs are lengthy(at least 7 minutes) and with repetitive arrangements. The first song has an atmospheric intro then the other instruments are one by one entering in a nice jamming. Switches back and forth into the atmospheric escapades and powerful guitar/bass driven moments. Sometime I have the feeling that the sounds resembles some Mogwai especially at the end of the song.

The second song "Black paper planes" has somehow a strange name. A funny thing for these songs without lyrics is that I'm trying to imagine what these guys wanted to say only by hearing the melodic line. I don't know if that was the intention but I imagine a child throwing such a plane made out of black paper and contemplating the surroundings from his hidden place on top of a building.

359 has e relaxing floydian intro. The same good rhythmic section with a nice repetitive melody turning much more heavily as the song advanced. This is probably one of the best song on this one even if somehow all of them have same level.

I know you Stanley Milgram is the forth song. I don't know if the song is talking about the social psychologist Stanley Milgram but if yes I like it. Since I started to like progressive rock music I was very surprised to find connections with different aspects of science, literature or simply with some interesting ideas coming out of from interesting people. In any case the same heavy approach with some slow/atmospheric interludes.

"The nearing grave", the last but one song, is a bit different because on this one the vocal part is also present. The song follows the same pattern. I don't know exactly why they decided to add vocals because I would say that it would have sound better without it. Not a bad song but probably the weakest.

Sundown highway has a very powerful and bass line at the beginning with some pulsating sounds in the background. In the middle A military march style drumming part followed by a repetitive jamming thereafter and, at the end, by acoustic guitar which is somehow unusual and surprising in the same place.

Recommended for post-rock fans if they want a piece of heaviness.

This is certainly a proposal for the ears of those who are willing to go further from the pre-established musical boundaries in order to discover a brand new adventurous world of elaborated passages and sequences not conceived for the regular listener. The German band delivers through "Avoid The Light" a quite remarkable second effort to underline even more what they compromised to achieve on their debut album and to me, they just hit the bull's-eye.

When it comes to musical evolution and development within "Avoid The Light", the musicianship truly sets off in a perfectly timed togetherness, collapsing all instruments in an almost circular transition that floats around over and over again until the syncopated notes out of the thundering drums or crunchy guitars break into scene. I must say that from day one of spinning this record I have created this strange sense of detachment whenever I feel like running out of this world.

Perhaps the album may appear to be derivative and hollow at certain points but the enjoyment of these minimalistic details is what makes the listening more pleasant and intriguing at the same time. The main instrumental section within the album goes from "Apparitions" through "I Know You, Stanley Milgram!" where four enigmatic tracks describe a space full of erratic sensations through heavy riffs and empowering arrangements. Right after that, "The Nearing Grave" carries on almost in a more passive mood along soft lyrics in between that blend suitably perfect with the background music.

And so, "Sundown Highway" represents the closing section of this musical experience brought to us by LONG DISTANCE CALLING. This track is a keeper indeed, maybe to me the most elaborated and condensed piece out of the entire record. There is a certain slant towards a more progressive influence without leaving out the pure and unique essence of the band as it transcends directly to the base of basic Progressive Metal but surprisingly how, it closes down so calmly that it gets to confuse the listener a little bit.

LONG DISTANCE CALLING shows definitely a breakthrough within the genre by risking and proposing new ways of listening to music in spite of the unavoidable comparisons. This German band has been to me one of the best discoveries on what's been running out of the current year.

"Avoid the Light" is the first Long Distance Calling album I've heard, and their style fits my tastes perfectly.

They play a kind of stoner rock mixed with space rock and touches of psychedelia, as well as crossover prog influences in the style of Porcupine Tree and The Pinneaple Thief, which makes this "Avoid the Light" a fun and easy-to-listen album despite being practically instrumental.

Highly recommended! I will listen more of this band, for sure.

Best Tracks: Black Paper Planes (it's an absolutely defining song of the band's style, really good) and Sundown Highway (an epic song that cleverly mixes stoner with gothic, but remains purely progressive)

My Rating: ****