NEWSPAPERFLYHUNTING

This release features five tracks and puts the rock in the post-rock equation with grungy guitar heft and heavy bass and drum parts although there is always a nice atmospheric accompaniment from the keys. In all honesty TIME REGAINED is more in the shoegaze department than anything but comes close to post-metal at times with the dirty guitar diction and post-rock meandering.

The atmospheres are dreamy and when the guitar fuzz is absent sounds rather psychedelic however the heavy grunge guitar yanks it out of dreamland and places it firmly in a shoegazy post-grunge sorta camp. The cyclical loops are hypnotic and and the cleaner guitar parts certainly exude a Mogwai sorta post-rock vibe. There are also some trippy sound effects thrown in from time to time.

The first two tracks are rather bleak and jarring however "Everything's Fine" is more melodic and features a large intro of clean guitars and piano rolls before breaking into power guitar chords. "Hallways" is a typical post-rock track with a Mogwai type template. The best track is the 12-minute closer "Another Island" which showcases excellent atmospheric buildups and more interesting guitar, bass and drum dynamics.

An interesting album but nothing spectacular. The vocals don't work for some reason. The range is limited and i really just don't like the vocal performances on this one. All lyrics are in English btw. Overall i'm not blown away by NEWSPAPERFLYHUNTING. There are interesting moments especially on the last track but more times than not it's too tame for my liking. This album doesn't make me want to explore further into the band's canon either.

Polish band Newspaperflyhunting are one of many outfits around that, by accident or design, appear to create a brand of post rock that draws in details from indie rock to flavor their material, and that they operate out from a post rock platform, or at least have a strong and distinct orientation towards that style, what sets them a bit apart from many others. Their delicate compositions with firmer, harder edged and darker intermissions and developments are interesting and often fairly innovative, but the end result suffers a bit from some key weaknesses that will limit their overall appeal. Still, an interesting band that has the potential to develop into a unit with a wider overall appeal, and one that merits a check by those with an interest in bands that incorporate indie rock and a liberal amount of post rock into their take on progressive rock.