POST ROCK/MATH ROCK

Math Rock has proven to be one of my least favourite sub-genres, for me it's so clinical and cold. Yes I'm blown away by the musicians who can pull this style of music off, it just doesn't resonate with me that's all. I like how this band connects their albums to birds, I'm a fan. All instrumental of course. And talk about high energy, complex, and powerful music. I mean check out the first three tracks and the closer and you get this in spades. Out of those four pieces I prefer "Imaginedit" for that 1 1/2 minute section of beautiful guitar. Next favourite would be the longest one at just over 8 minutes called "I Want To Live In All The Remaining Lives With You". So romantic. The start of "Sleep Snatchers" seems out of place, so catchy with that strummed guitar, but it's also a nice break from the norm.

This is a short recording at 36 1/2 minutes, but only six tracks. A lot of fans get pretty enthusiastic over this band for a reason. If your at all into this style of music, you owe it to yourself to check ABOUT TESS out. I like that they have had a stable lineup from the start as well.

The band made somewhat of a splash at least in the world of post-rock with its second album "Ujubasajuba" while this one has become somewhat forgotten. While implementing the same post-rock characteristics as other bands with an emphasis on timbre, texture and atmosphere, KAIRON; IRSE! mixed it's post-rock delivery system with Pink Floydian psychedelic rock and fuzzy My Bloody Valentine style shoegaze. This debut features seven tracks which run at about 40 minutes with lyrics primarily in the Finnish language. Dmitry Melet's vocals remind me of Sigur Ros at times with exaggerated falsettos but mostly they sound more like a typical indie rock band with a more gruff demeanor.

While the band's following albums offer a bit more complexity having been cited as comparable to acts as far ranging as Gentle Giant, Todd Rungren and the Flaming Lips, album #1 is more of a straight forward post-rock affair with emphasis on shoegazy atmosphere and psychedelic effects such as reverting vocals, trippy guitar tones and feedback and a laid back nonchalant procession of the tracks. The violin parts add a folky aspect to the mix while certain slow tempo tracks like "Cuscuspin" have a touch of Pink Floyd including a David Gilmour inspired guitar solo. The guitar distortion can be a bit gritty and heavy but often operates on clean lush arpeggiated motifs.

This album has been described as an immature hybrid of post-rock, shoegaze, psychedelic rock and dream pop and that's not far from the truth as the band would develop an energetic drive on its second release and become a lot more progressive. Basically this was a starting point for KAIRON; IRSE! which provided the proper warmup for finding its own voice in the crowded world of post-rock in the 21st century. While not unpleasant, THE DEFECT IN THAT ONE IS BLEACH / WE'RE HUNTING WOLVERINES also isn't very memorable. It's a nice mix of grungy guitar, shoegazy atmospheres and violin extras but the compositions are rather lackluster and obviously needed room for improvement. While the band clearly shouldn't write this off it is their weakest effort indeed.

An interesting lineup where we get four of the five playing guitar. Only the drummer doesn't plus two of those who play guitars add synths, and another adds keys and bass. A talented group who touch on Math Rock here. It's interesting that they recorded this in the USA, but also mixed and mastered it there. There are vocals unfortunately and that drops this to a 3.5 star album in my world. Some great contrasts on this one between the mellow and powerful. That first track "Altered Beast" is a good example of your typical Post Rock build. Slowly of course but ending up in a wall of sound. A beautiful calm ends it. That's my favourite but I like "Happy Accident" quite a bit despite the vocals. While "Look At That Cloud!" also stands out some from the rest.

I don't feel like they released a better record than this, their debut. The music will scratch a few itches. An open mind helps with the contrasting styles in play.

This debut followed in the spirit of nerdy math rock inspired art punk acts like NoMeansNo, Slint and Minutemen with a combination of King Crimson inspired dissonant chord progressions, complex zigzagging compositions, forceful jackhammering punk angst and the oddball addition of Flipper inspired saxophone accompaniments. A tad of alternative heavy rock also reminds a bit of Jane's Addiction especially in some of the vocal parts. Navigating a labyrinthine series of eight tracks in its 43 minute run, 4.9.21.30 dished out a contrasting mix of fast tempo brashness along with more sensual moments of placidity. The album's opener "Shower Scene" evokes aspects of post-rock although the knotty math rock riffs dominate the soundscape.

The main gist of 4.9.21.30 is for the bass groove to provide a basic melody while the twisted chord complexities weave their way around it. Motifs change at the drop of a pin but recurring cadences offer a stabilizing force while the guitar and drumming techniques offer unique fills often employing a series of jazzy time signature moves to craft super tight yet freeform musical expressions. Vocals range from abrasive punk shouting to more relaxed subdued singing. Distortion is on the noisy side and the clamoring of the guitars offers a jarring [%*!#] it all demeanor amplified by free jazz saxophone blasts and abrupt hairpin turns. Together these attributes showcased an extremely disciplined technical wizardry coupled with the freewheeling explosiveness of anarcho-punk offset by slower moments of post-rock with a jazzy touch. Add a touch of emo fueled vocal angst and you have a wild ride!

Jagged dissonant guitar textures with saxophone smoothness sally forth in irreverent processions finding noisy outbursts pacified by cool-down periods and vocal harmony call and response sessions. The album delivers a steady yet agitating roller coaster ride of bantering mathy art punk ceding to more standard uniformity where the independent nature of the instrumentation suddenly plays together in unison. Abrasive tones and tumultuous timbres plunder the senses while frenetic chaos lurks around every musical measure. A triumph of rhythmic mystery and organized dystopia, SWEET THE LEG JOHNNY emerged as a veritable powerhouse of punk-infused art prog that melded its influences together so well that it's impossible to distinguish any particular passage as attributed to one source.

The band was notable for its ability to change things up significantly from album to album as members jumped ship and others joined the ranks. Bassist Matt Alicea would leave after this debut and replaced by John Brady for the band's second release "Tomorrow We Will Run Faster" which focused more on slower progressive post-rock elements more similar to "Godspeed You! Black Emperor" than the NoMeansNo meets Flipper and Minutemen approach of this debut. Overall an impressive beginning for a wildly unhinged band that was notable for its prolific live performances that kept the world of punk rock relevant in the alternative experimental 90s and beyond. I really love how the band crafted a huge arsenal of interesting experimental approaches on this debut. An amazingly strong piece of proggy art punk.

TEN RAPID finds the band already having established its core sound of guitar-based instrumentals that feature melodic bass grooves and the use of distortion and effects that offer the dynamic contrasts that the band continued with its long canon of releases that followed. The album featured nine tracks that generated the expected cyclical loops, patiently delivered build ups and thundering crescendoes which in the case of TEN RAPID featured louder and more rocking aspects of guitar distortion with the occasional outbursts of high energy freneticism. In the case of "Tuner" guitarist Stuart Braithwaite also added vocal accompaniments.

Generating the same sort of hypnotizing effect that many slow-burning post-rock bands deliver, TEN RAPID doesn't offer sprawling tracks with climactic endings like contemporary acts such as Godspeed You! Black Emperor but rather short poignant ones that pacify your senses before pummeling them into submission at least on select tracks like "Ithaca 27-9." The main focus on TEN RAPID seems to be on the myriad tones and textures afforded by modern technologies that allow various shades of nuances of distortion, feedback and warm tones eking out emotional responses to otherwise rather simplistic slowcore styled compositions that to the inattentive ear will sound dull and overly repetitive.

Considered to be the debut album by some and a compilation to others, TEN RAPID is more of a supplemental album's worth of material that hallmarked the band's development as it became an influential act in the world of late 90s post-rock but really the tracks on here aren't anything to get overly excited about as they don't deviate from the band's usual repertoire that followed. While many went gaga over MOGWAI in the early 2000s personally i've never warmed up to them in the way i have to other more engaging post-rock bands of the same era due to the rather bland delivery system this band more or less has coasted on for well over a quarter of a century now.

Infinitely less experimental than Swans, Talk Talk or Sigur Ros, MOGWAI started out and has remained a more stripped down post-rock type of act that has accented the tonal swells that ebb and flow throughout its rather monotonous processions. While TEN RAPID offers a bit more of an extreme contrast between the soft and the heavy, it's basically MOGWAI in its already established form. It's a pleasant listening experience but not one that really gets my juices flowing for the same reason the majority of the band's subsequent releases fail to inspire me. For those already indoctrinated into the MOGWAI cult, this one will surely provide a much needed extra dose of slightly augmented MOGWAI tracks but to my ears the extremes distract from the main purpose of what MOGWAI offered on its spacier albums that followed.

Formed by four college classmates in 2003 attending Bodø University College (now The University of Nordland), YOUTH PICTURES OF FLORENCE HENDERSON began as a band without a clear genre with the demo covering everything from pop and country to punk and dreamy post-rock tracks. The band liked the post-rock sound so much that it won the genre lottery and thus the lads delivered their first release UNNOTICEABLE IN A TINY TOWN, INVISIBLE IN THE CITY two years later after recording the album's six distinct tracks in their school's bomb shelter.

Gathering influences from the myriad post-rock bands that preceded, YPOFH's first album eschews the excessive Midwest Emo aspects of its later releases and dabbled in a more pure post-rock ethos on UNNOTICEABLE. Consisting of dreamy post-rock cyclical loops infused with dream pop style atmospheric layers, UNNOTICEABLE features an Explosions In The Sky meets Mogwai style of repetitive guitar arpeggios, groovy bass lines and layers of synthesized accompaniments that give the album that frigid Sigur Ros type of iciness with vocals that evoke not only the Sigur Ros falsetto type of delivery but also the kind of gruff vocals heard in emo influenced indie rock bands such as Modest Mouse or Built To Spill.

Beautiful epic soundscapes emerge from nothingness to build from gently strummed clean guitars and a serene percussive drive. Spoken word sampling evokes a touch of Godspeed You! Black Emperor while the elegantly uttered lyrics dabble in a pinch of Bark Psychosis as well as monstrous reverberated swells that evoke the shoegaze of bands like Slowdive. Add to that moments of more energetic rock with increased tempos that add a touch of American Football or Sunny Day Real Estate only never allowing the more aggressive elements to derail the overall pastoral placidly of the entire experience. Beautiful melodies and haunting atmospheres propel the album into an emotionally charged procession through gentle rhythms which deliver a welcome warmth in the midst of the Arctic winter.

The band was an immediate hit in its native Norway finding it as the nation's top post-rock act as well as finding its debut release considered the second best album in Norway for 2005. While steeped in the traditional minimalism of post-rock with repetitive looping and lush inviting tones, YOUTH PICTURES OF FLORENCE HENDERSON also excelled in adding subtly diverse tempo changes, contrapuntal melodies and rhythmic shifts that offered satisfying climatic approaches. While not deviating significantly form the status quo of what post-rock offered in the early 2000s, the band nevertheless executed an interesting alternative approach that gave it a distinct style. While not quite as bleak as Godspeed nor as ethereal as Sigur Ros, YOUTH PICTURES OF FLORENCE HENDERSON found that nice little niche in between.

The opener "Separation No. 2" brings a positive emotion with that beautiful atmosphere. More of that on the next track "Rioseco" created by the guitars and keys, but check out the guest strings as well. Great track where it turns powerful, but there's also this majesty as well about it. Slide guitar too at one point. "Darkfield" is an example of them going quite heavy before 4 minutes before it relaxes with Post rock styled guitars. The closer and title track is the longest at 11 1/2 minutes and full of contrasts. They get close to metal at times on this record.

This is without question a worthy album in the Post rock tradition. They went all out it seems, adding horns as well on this one. I really feel that if your into this sub-genre you really need to hear this band, and especially the back to back "Waking Season" and "Dust And Disquiet". 4 stars.

"My Lunar Boots" is the six minute opener that is a great example of how bright and poppy this album sounds. Happy is the word here. "Feather Beats" and "Barry On Safari" are energetic and punchy. "On To Tarmac" is rather funky while the one heavy track is aptly titled "Arrival Of The Rhino" with those crazy opening synths. We get a good closer called "That's Where We're At" with some excellent drumming. Some reference THE SAMUEL JACKSON FIVE which I do get, they were contemporaries, but man I much prefer THE SAMUEL JACKSON FIVE, and that's my "go to" for happy Post Rock.

By 1986 SWANS was starting to evolve past its origins out of the no wave scene that briefly took New York City by storm and was splintering off into new arenas of experimentalism. While many of these groups would simply just fade away after leaving their mark, SWANS was one of the few to continue on to the present day by constantly reinventing itself without losing that initial impetus of making bleak noisy minimalism. One of the first significant changes emerged on this short EP (some call it a single) titled TIME IS MONEY (BASTARD) / SEALED IN SKIN.

This marked the debut of Jarboe who had left the swamps of Louisiana to engage in the world of experimental rock and stage music in New York City. She had been a fan of SWANS since the "Filth" album and contacted Michael Gira who recognized the band needed to move past its origins and evolve into something completely new. This EP / single features three tracks. TIME IS MONEY finds the band jumping into the world of industrial rock in the vein of Come, early Big Black and Alien Sex Fiend only SWANS retained the bleakness and dread of its no wave albums "Filth" and "Cop."

The second track SEALED IN SKIN features a slowed down return to the no wave form only less abrasive without the guitar distortion and grunge that made the first two albums so abrasive. This track finds Gira's vocals sound like a moaning mummy as he monotonously bellows baritone vocals alongside a monotonous dirge-like motif that offers little variation from in terms of musicality. The EP / single ends with a remix of TIME IS MONEY (BASTARD) which features a beefed up percussion and more echoey guitar presence. Not as industrial sounding as the first track but offers a glimpse of what Alien Sex Fiend would adopt as its sound once it evolved out of its deathrock routine.

At this point Jarboe's duties were limited to merely screaming on the album but it helped her establish a connection with the band that would allow her to expand her own musical talents and ideas into the world of SWANS. Of course this band, especially the earlier 80s releases are an acquired taste that many find too harsh, too monotonous or just too weird but personally i find the magic is in the hypnotic effect of the bleak tones and timbres, the mesmerizing rhythms and the simplistic procession of it all. It's an entirely different way of perceiving music but one that ultimately works to a satisfying level for my ears. Gira did an excellent job of nudging SWANS along into new arenas and not just jumping headfirst into a new style completely. These songs never appeared on any SWANS album so you have to hunt these down separately but i personally find these as essential as any of the earliest caustic SWANS releases.