MetaFilter posts tagged with postrock

Not like the other bands

Sonny Jim — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 12:24:39 -0800

Teeth of the Sea are a quartet of clean-cut young men from North London. They work in shops. Together, they make a near indescribable noise, a bit like Sketches of Spain-era Miles Davis recordings reimagined by slightly scary, 30-something metalheads with a thing for Euro-sleaze cinema, cheap lager, philosophy and noise rock. They are, genuinely, not like other bands. Additional links: Teeth of the Sea's second album, Your Mercury (2010) [Spotify] The Hypnoticon EP (2010) [Spotify] TOTS first album, Orphaned by the Ocean (2009) [Spotify] Twitter Live footage: Swear Blind the Alsatian's Melting, (Lexington, London, 2010). Red Soil (Lexington, London, December 2011) A.C.R.O.N.Y.M. (Lexington, London, December 2011) You're Mercury, (Lexington, London, December 2011) The Island Is (ripped from the Hypnoticon EP) Bonus footage: Sometime Rocket Recordings label-mates psych-/krautrock/Afrobeat helpmeets: The pretty amazing Swedes Goat (live at the Lexington, October 2012) Manchester-natives Gnod, Tron (live, April 2012). More Gnod, live in Brussels earlier this year. Unfortunately, I can't find any footage of the TOTS DJ support slot for Slavoj Žižek in London earlier this year.

All the footprints you've ever left, and the fear expecting ahead

legospaceman — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 07:20:07 -0800

There came into existence in the late 90s, two genres of music that took rock music, using just about any metric, to opposite extremes. Then someone came along and decided to cram them together into the same songs. A decade down the line, the names of those genres, having a labelling / confining effect, are much-maligned, and in the way of all youth culture, embarassing to use. The un-coolness of naming things, or the tyrrany of irony, leaves us almost incapable of discussing these things earnestly. The other reason is simply that they have been used so widely for subgenres that have completely diverged, that they only stand in as a poor man's shorthand. There are an awful lot of cringe-inducing "post-x" terms here, deal with it. 1. In the 90s, bands like Mogwai in the UK came to be described as post-rock, aptly defined quite early on as "using rock instrumentation for non-rock purposes, using guitars as facilitators of timbre and textures rather than riffs and power chords". The music as a whole took aspects of shoegaze, drone, minimalist classical, and transformed it into these haunting soundscapes that played with variations on a theme. Later on, there was significant emphasis on start-stop dynamics, intricate layers gradually building into bright, epic, cathartic, distorted climaxes. Various bands that have been so labelled: Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Sigur Ros, Do Make Say Think, Coma Lilies, and Explosions in the Sky. The music has also cribbed from math-rock, and as such post-rock is the closest thing we have to classical music that's not prog-rock, prog-metal, or, well, modern classical. Some of it has turned pop. All of this music seems considered, deliberate. This is in direct opposition to: 2. Screamo*. Hardcore punk and emo in California spawned the genre in the early 1990s. Bands like Orchid, Saetia, pg. 99, and Hot Cross played mostly short, dark, chaotic songs with abrupt pace changes, heavy on the harmonics, emotive, sometimes political, and usually with screaming. Lots of passionate screaming. For most of these bands, the lyrics mattered a hell of a lot despite the fact that you couldn't understand any of it. What they had in common with post-rock was the emphasis on tone. It was atmospheric, even when the songs lasted less than a minute. *The snark is so reactionary against this term, given the number of bands that strayed from these roots into boy-band territory, that in a somewhat tongue-in-cheek fashion people actually renamed the older screamo genre 'skramz' to differentiate it. Cue Japan. Japan was maybe the first country outside the Western hemisphere to perform the wholesale consumption and regurgitation of Western pop trends. Then, in a logical progression that seems universal to all new cultural modes introduced anywhere, they went from imitating the music to reconstructing vast swathes of what can be generally construed as 'Western' music. They have their own Ramones. They have their own everything. Well before the over-saturation of post-rock, and soon after seminal screamo bands were releasing their seminal LPs, there came out of the Japanese hardcore scene: 3. Envy. They evolved from hardcore punk rock to something that is, in the best ways possible, a fusion of screamo and post-rock. There were other bands that had experimented with this, most notably Envy's US tourmates, City of Caterpillar. But no one did it like this. The tone of the guitars, the huge guttural riffs, the beautiful twinkly lead-ins, and the frontman's voice, switching rapidly from an accomplished singer's into a kind of white-noise scream so granular, it almost seems smooth. Hugely influential, Envy essentially set a new course for Japanese screamo, and lead to bands like Heaven in Her Arms and Killie, who took this marriage of genres and turned it into a epic, messy divorce. Much of this music is, in the conventional sense, abrasive. But I find it difficult to believe that people who are genuinely into music cannot, after a certain break in period, recalibrate their brains to look past the superficial tone of the music. The collective output of the previous three bands I've mentioned is staggeringly beautiful. I am sometimes amazed that a group of people could get together with specific intent and agency to create this. The thought will sometimes flash through my brain when I'm listening to these bands, "they meant to do this." It's wondrous.

RIP Jason Noble

safetyfork — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 17:29:07 -0800

Diagnosed in 2009 with synovial sarcoma, Jason Noble of Rodan, Rachel's, and Shipping News passed away August 4th. Video: Rodan, Rachel's, Shipping News.

More music from Mishka

filthy light thief — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 11:50:57 -0800

You might have seen the hours of music from Bloglin last year, but Мишка ("Mishka," or "bear cub" in Russian) has another treasure trove of music: free albums, anthologies, and mixtapes on Bandcamp. They started a bit slow with a single mixtape in 2009 from Ninjasonik, and 2010 wasn't too active. But in 2011 they had 9 releases, and already 14 in 2012, the newest being the debut album from 19-year-old nu-disco producer Cream Dream. A handy rundown of the releases to date below the fold. First, a note: Mishka is fond of nudity in their banners, so if you aren't blocking ads, consider MishkaNYC links NSFW. Bandcamp links are visually fine, but there's a good chance you'll hear some swearing. Hip-hop mixtapes/albums September 2010: Right Now is an album produced by Aaron Clevenger, aka AC Slater, with vocals by Dell “o8o” Harris (former frontman of Thunderkatz). February 2011: Lincoln Way Nights: Intelligent Trunk Music is a mixtape/album from NYC resident Stalley repping his hometown of Cleveland, featuring production by Rashad. May 2011: Car Keys & Rabbit's Feet is a album/mixtape from the LA four-man crew The '87 Stick Up Kids, boisterous and diverse, "consistent with the band’s upbeat and thunderous style". August 2011: 808s & Dark Grapes II by Main Attrakionz is the sequel to their original 808s & Dark Grapes mixtape. Pitchfork has a great write-up on the California "DIY hip-hop" duo and 8&DG2. September 2011: Mr. Muthafuckin' eXquire first released a no-budget video for The Song That Never Ends (Part 2), hyping his debut mixtape Lost In Translation, which featured production by El-P. eXquire has 20 other videos on his YouTube account, if this is your kind of NY rap. December 2011: Mishka continued to support the Das Racist crew, with one of their guest members Lakutis' release I'm In the Forest EP. February 2012: BBU, short for Bin Laden Blowin’ Up, "are products of the 80s and Reaganomics, just like Bin Laden was" (their own description). Or it could stand for Black, Brown and Ugly, and they make "revolutionary juke music" (again, their own description). Mishka teamed up with Mad Decent to put together the bell hooks mixtape, mixed by DJ Benzi. Audible Treats has a run-down of the mixtape. March 2012: Children of the Night are a young crew from NY, a part of the larger World's Fair group. Queens... Revisited is their mixtape for Mishka. April 2012: Victor Vazquez, aka Kool A.D., is one third of Das Racist. He released a disjointed mixtape that was titled in reference to a seminal work of modern African literature. His follow-up tape, simply titled "51", was regarded more highly. May 15: The Toothy Wavy EP is a weird collaboration, between Isaiah Toothtaker, incarcerated rapper Mike B whose lines are recorded from phone conversations, and production by The Hood Internet. June 2012: Lil B is prolific, so much that Mishka put together four anthologies of his work in June, each with 20 tracks, and each focused on one face of B. Faces of Lil B Vol. 1: Based God The Star, in which we see "the fun loving Lil B that comes the closest to making pop music (but is still weird as fuck)." Vol. 2: Based God Is Eternal, which focuses on the spacier side of Lil B, the "soothing and expansive" tracks, and early tracks from when he rapped over (nearly) ambient soundscapes. Vol. 3: Based God Struggles are his songs about struggles in the hood. The fourth and final volume is titled Based God Is Gorgeous, covering Lil B's "Pretty Boy Music" phase. Party Mixes of Mayhem November 2010: Australian art punk group The Death Set threw together a party mix called Artificially Sweetend, available on Soundcloud as a single long track, or on Bandcamp as 43 tracks. December 2011: The Hood Internet are a Chicago duo known for their mashup mixtapes, and Mishka released their debut "album," a self-titled compilation of 14 tracks, including original remixes and production. Electronic Somethings January 2012: Cameron Reed, aka Babe Rainbow, released a couple EPs, first the Shaved EP (with a creepy video for the title track: Vimeo, YouTube), then Endless Paths. Both EPs are streaming on Bandcamp, available to purchase elsewhere. Pitchfork has a good summary on Babe Rainbow's background and self-titled "surf-step" style (summary: "it's difficult to imagine surfing to Reed's more ominous tones"). Mishka got involved, and got the track "Greed" from the Endless Paths remixed 6 times, and included the instrumental for good measure. May 2012: Mishka paired EPs from the married couple from Columbus, Ohio, Funerals and a producer from Mexico, Ritualz, titled Hypermotion B and Hypermotion X, respectively. Where Ritualz is "gothic trance," Funerals makes "deep midnight techno" with sounds of the early 90s and samples ripped from 50s nuclear propaganda. June 2012: Carrie Wilds has a more traditional musical background, singing with her school chorus, then attending a youth opera camp at the age of eleven. She moved from Florida to New York, where she worked with a variety of producers. Her self-titled mixtape showcases her voice over the music of other folks. Blogin has a bit more info, and links to her video featuring Mr. Muthafuckin eXquire. Grave Wave/ Neo-Goth/ Witch House/ Dark Post Rock November 2010: The Guide to Grave Wave is a 3 disc set with 35 tracks: disc 1, disc 2, and disc 3 January 2011: Texas-based //TENSE// makes Industrial/EBM, "born with dreams of resurrecting the forgotten Wax Trax! sound". Available on limited edition 7" vinyl, and a video (on Vimeo and YouTube. The Bandcamp release extended the release with additional remixes. April 2011: Hussle Club's Loose Tights was Mishka's 3rd 7" release, keeping in their Grave Wave sound. The single was accompanied by a video (Vimeo, YouTube) of the A-side. The b-side is a cover of The Cult's song She Sells Sanctuary (YT video). The Bandcamp EP is expanded with 7 diverse remixes of the title track. July 2011: Witch house mastermind Mater Suspiria Vision (previously) teamed up with Mishka to release a limited 7" single and a video, which was expanded Seduction of the Armageddon Witches EP, featuring 5 distinctly non-witchy remixes of the B-side track. January 2012: The next limited 7" and video from the post-rock side of Mishka is a split from C V L T S and Virgin Spirit. And this time, instead of including the original tracks, the Bandcamp release is Time Debt/Bathed In White Remixed EP, without the original cuts. Less dark, more hypnotic.

Australian dubtechno and dubstep from Westernsynthetics and friends

filthy light thief — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 10:58:11 -0800

"Rhyece O’Neill is an intense young man. A polemical folk singer, a producer of bass-heavy dance music, a protester, and a digital media worker for a major record label. He’s unlike anyone else in Australia’s dubstep landscape." Cyclic Defrost interviews O'Neill, aka electronic/dub/dubstep producer Westernsynthetics, and head of the Sub Continental Dub label. You can skip the rest and hear two streaming mixes from Westernsynthetics, 19 tracks from the Sub Continental Dub label, plus the label's first three singles, or continue inside for background, context, and even more music. Raised on Bob Dylan, Pink Floyd, The Doors, Hendrix, and Zappa, O'Neill joined a punk band with strong political views, then shifted to the electro and drum'n'bass scenes in the early 2000s, through which he found dubstep in 2005. All the while, he kept busking for money, playing covers of Dylan and Neil Young, and even wrote his own folk music, including a song about the Yorta Yorta people. New Fuse was one of Westernsynthetics first songs, written in 2006 and sent to various DJs for support, but only released online in the last year. In the next few years, he formed his own small label to promote like-minded Australian musicians, including Josh Lamaro aka Spherix (SUBDUB001), Rick Bull aka Deepchild (SUBDUB 003). Both of those singles, plus Westernsynthetics Engine No.999, which was nominated in the 'Best Instrumental Composition' category in the Australian Songwriters Association Awards, are streaming on an archived view of the label's discography page. Westernsynthetics' debut album was released on 10.10.10, entitled May Day Radio, a mix of dubstep, techno, and downtempo hi-hop. The album is streaming on Soundcloud, and the first single from the album, The Machine, has a murky, abstract video (YouTube; also on Vimeo). The track features samples of Mario Savio, from his speech on the steps Sprout Hall as part of the Free Speech Movement from 1964-65 (previously). If you still want more of the dub techno/dubstep sound, here's two hours of mixes, and here's the tracklist for the Void live mix (the .ZIP download link is dead, though). If you're looking for something else, Rhyece interviewed b.i.n.t., (scroll down past the bit on sampling drums), and linked to a streaming track and a free breakcore album to download. If you keep scrolling down past the interview, you'll get to the free electrical storm breaks that Rhyece recorded in Germany (Free Sound Project previously, twice). But if breakcore isn't your thing, you can stream postrock-type tracks and mixes from Gentleforce Soundcloud, or his album POWWOW Nine on Bandcamp, which Rhyece supports.

A Liquid Breakfast for the Ears

titus-g — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 01:08:34 -0800

Fluid Radio stream experimental frequencies into the ether. Channel 2 is especially worth a listen, flowing forth a fairly constant warm wash of haunting melancholy and mellow fruitiness in post folk and post rock form. The reviews on the site appear to be written by an offspring of Monty Cantsin and Rrose Sélavy: I don't know what they're saying, but the reading of them brings zen-like quietude.

Miskha: Keep Watch, the mixes (and more music)

filthy light thief — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 10:16:53 -0800

A couple hours of streaming music, courtesy of the friends of Bloglin (potentially NSFW banner, if you aren't blocking scripts). Browse through the audio on Soundcloud (57 uploads to date, and most are mixes), or sort through Blogin by categories (29 Keep Watch mixes, 167 mixtapes, and 3,235 music posts [though many are reviews and don't include handy downloads]). The music is mostly electronic, with some odd jaunts into post-rock/gothic styles and even some punk. Мишка material/links previously: Geneva Jacuzzi's music (one review from the Bloglin crew). The Creepy Touch, a web-TV show thing from Mishka.

Music like shattered glass

empath — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 09:48:20 -0800

Kashiwa Daisuke is a japanese post-rock musician, (formerly in Yodaka) who specializes in gorgeous, epic, glitchy piano pieces that constantly seem on the verge of falling apart... Stella, April 02, Write Once, Run Melos are my favorites.

"It's just like creating anything. when you create food, it's just like creating music."

filthy light thief — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 14:12:45 -0800

The Jónsi and Alex (Recipe) Show: join Jónsi Birgisson (frontman of Sigur Rós), Alex Somers and their very loud blender to make raw food recipes. They made three videos from their Good Heart recipe book, for Macadamia Monster Mash, Raw Strawberry Pie, and Nammi Nammi. If coconut, almonds, dates and agave (heavily featured in their three recipes) aren't your thing, enjoy a couple dreamy videos from the couple's album Riceboy Sleeps: All the Big Trees and Daníell in the Sea. See also: Sometimes I Get Scared (a distortion-heavy non-album track), and Jónsi and Alex talk about their album, with parts of the tracks in the background. Jónsi's solo album, Go, is now out, and he has solo videos up on Vimeo, 13 up at time of posting. Sigur Rós scrapped their last in-the-works album, and members are focusing on their own things. According to Jónsi, they have been "back in the drummer's garage, rocking out like we did when we were 14. i think it’s gonna be good."

I said, "Kiss me, you're beautiful.. These are truly the last days"

vivelame — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 05:30:14 -0800

It's official, post-rock giants Godspeed You! Black Emperor were only mostly dead, and will curate and play at the next All Tommorow's Parties, then on for a European and US tour.

Holy Fucking Shit: 40,000

Christ, what an asshole — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 19:03:15 -0800

Connecticut's Have a Nice Life is responsible for one of the year's most acclaimed, highly conceptual albums this year, Deathconsciousness. The two discs (entitled The Plow That Broke The Plains and The Future, respectively) feature music spanning over five years of collaboration between the two artists, and are accompanied by a 75-page booklet on medieval Italian heretics in lieu of liner notes. Combining elements of shoegaze, new wave, ambient drone, post-rock, experimental industrial, avant-garde dark metal, and electronic music, and citing references such as My Bloody Valentine and Joy Division to their credit, the original and only pressings sold out within hours. Full stream of all 85 minutes available here. Direct mp3 samples here and here. From their myspace: What is Deathconsciousness? Deathconsciousness refers to three things: It refers to the debut double album from Have A Nice Life, featuring over 4 years and 2 hours worth of recorded material. All songs have been re-recorded, remixed, and remastered, including the songs from our demo release, Powers of Ten. It refers to the short book of the same name that accompanies the record. Over 80 pages in length, written by a University of Massachusetts History professor, this book explores the deep religious symbology we used for inspiration while writing the record. The songs contain elaborate references to 12th century apostasies; the book will help those without a background in religious history to understand their meanings. And, finally, Deathconsciousness is the concept that lies at the heart of the record itself: the overwhelming awareness, at all times, of death and it’s proximity.

Hush, the babies are sleeping...

Christ, what an asshole — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 18:53:34 -0800

Justine Dream Experiment (NSFW)

God is an Astronaut

MaryDellamorte — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 15:17:35 -0800

God is an Astronaut is an instrumental post-rock trio hailing from Ireland. Formed in 2002, they started their own record label, Revive Records, to release their debut album The End of the Beginning. With heavily layered melodies, their music is beautiful and dynamic. They've released three videos Fragile, The End of the Beginning, and From Dust to the Beyond. My personal favorites include Forever Lost and Frozen Twilight. More of their songs can be heard on their Last.fm and Myspace pages. Link to their official website here.

Coney Island Playground

Christ, what an asshole — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 16:20:52 -0800

Godspeed You! Black Emperor officially calls it quits, citing the Iraq war as a primary catalyst. "The last American tour that Godspeed did was in the run up to the current war in Iraq. For what Godspeed did, it was very difficult for us to work out a way for us to communicate directly with the audience about what was going on." Umm...yeah. So who's to fill their giant post-rock shoes? Well, most of the members have moved on to other projects, most notably Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band (among others). That's not to mention the slew of next generation bands that have culled GY!BE as a primary influence to get your fix: Sparrows Swarm and Sing, Sweek, The Seven Mile Journey, or johnnytwentythree, just to name a few.

Yay! Let's make a big deal about genres!

Mach3avelli — Sun, 06 Aug 2006 23:09:42 -0800

"Anyone who tells you music is dead just hasn't been listening to the right stuff." (some links NSFW) -some additional links-

enter pretentious phrase here

Mach3avelli — Mon, 07 Mar 2005 19:36:21 -0800

Postrock. A relatively new genre which continues to evolve in scope and definition, postrock is a treat to the ears. With bands like Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Explosions in the Sky, Sigur Rós, Do Make Say Think, and Mogwai at the helm, it has slowly grown in recognition through movie soundtracks. Yes, there's quite a plethora of postrock bands, but is anything necessarily revolutionary, or just a rehash of past ideas brought into contemporary context?

It's all about the sound.

moz — Mon, 23 Jul 2001 08:09:27 -0800

It's all about the sound. While most bands hate to be pigeonholed, one of the styles of music which I've lately gotten into is called "post rock." I can't get enough of bands like Stereolab, Yo La Tengo, and the Aluminum Group. I hope I'm not the only one who likes this stuff... any other post rockers out there?