September Malevolence - After This Darkness, There's a Next

Releasing their first album in 2004, the Swedish band September Malevolence crafted a very good, albeit cookie-cutter post-rock album. Unfortunately for them, the beginning of 2004 was a period of time when post-rock went from the genre that annoying GY!BE/Mogwai following hipsters "listened to" to the genre that nauseatingly predictable mainstream hipsters started "listening to". During this flood of generic post-cock,(This was originally a typo but I will now refer to it this way throughout the remainder of this horrid little article.) their debut went almost completely unnoticed. The few who did notice gave it rave reviews and it remains one of the better post-cock albums released that year.

Sick and tired of bands regurgitating the same shit with a different album cover, they decided they wanted to do something a bit different with their follow-up release. Comparable to a less emo/annoying Jeniferever and a bit less abrasive Aereogramme(Sleep and Release era), they were able to create an album with post-cock undertones, mixed with fantastic vocals and even some decent lyrics thrown in.

The album starts off with the slow, gorgeous and extremely catchy "Who Watches the Watchmen", an Ode to the greatest graphic novel of our time, Frank Miller's "The Dark Knight Returns". The third track,"A notion, I can't shake..." is a straight up acoustic folk song that may seem out of place based on my description, but in reality it fits perfectly with the remainder of the album as it segways seamlessly into the ferocious "...accidents happen so fast". The remainder of the album blurs all genre lines and by the end creates an album that is truly all their own.

As we wade waist deep in a pile of mediocre and unoriginal releases, it is such a relief to hear a band that isn't afraid to try something new and original, even if it means they alienate the few that initially loved them. If you've enjoyed anything we've shared on this site, give this album a shot. It's an understated classic that will hopefully be realized someday.

After This Darkness, There's a Next

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Worker Bee - Tangler

Not your amusement park's version of the old west, Worker Bee presents an unrefined diorama of a one-horse town through well-strung (and strummed) songs without sounding overly country or buying a banjo. Pieced together by tape and tune, Tangler has exposed corners of cardboard and frayed bits of construction paper visible, for a raw and ragged album that can get under your skin and into your bones if you let it. From my barstool, it looks something like this, with burned edges and scatted smoke stains.

Dusty melodies billow across the ground while wind whistles through cracks in the walls of an abandoned general store, clicks of drum sticks keep time as the town rots towards its demise. There's a tinge of pain in the pleading first words of "Come Back" over the state of a town left dirty and dollarless, and there's tension beneath the floorboards. Even the dirt's unsettled by the guitar-playing, gun-slinging owner of the town's one horse who rides in kicking up a trail of doom among "Nesting" plodding drums, hectic cymbals, and rapid rim shots, and faint bells dinging in the distance. Singing over slightly twanging strings with a pair of inherited smoker's lungs, the man sits at the bar filling the small, stank saloon with smells of whiskey, gun powder, and dried blood. He's the kind of man who'd take a lady for a walk and return alone. The kind of man who'd kick a dead horse to watch it bleed. Just one glance starts the bar fight between him, the "Cold Rats" and scoundrels, and someone's gotta die before it ends. Embodying the message of "Rough Magic", "a man's mind is always raining", the thick-skinned man stands over broken bottles donned in black coordinated with his core, as drums hit like buckets on a steel roof and tambourines than cling and clank like spurs. You can sit down in his bar, but you better leave your hand on your gun. This album has drums that can drive the devil out of town, and "All Roads" lead to the night, where the men get "burned by the moon" but never die. Tangler leaves you thinking, despite the flighty, feminine name, Worker Bee might not be a band to mess with.

At times resonating more of a 'new west' sound than old, Tangler is a bit rough around the edges, but nothing some smooth whiskey can't fix. So I'm gonna put my faded black boots on, kick a pony in the gut just to get blood on the tips, spur it in the neck to watch the red river wash away the boot prints, then get myself to a local watering hole.

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The Calm Blue Sea

The Calm Blue Sea hails from Austin, Texas and seems to have gone almost unnoticed in the ocean of fantastic music coming out of the Austin area. A comparison to their Austin post-rock brethren Explosions In The Sky is unavoidable, but they really are so much more than just another band that gets thrown into the same genre without a second thought.

Their self-titled debut is a gapless forty-six minutes of serenity and chaos. Each track moves seamlessly into the next and creates an overall dynamic that makes it nearly impossible to listen to just a single track. An absolute behemoth of a debut record and I'm not sure how I missed out on this one.

On their latest album Siegfried: An Original Score, they attempt to create a score for the 1924 film, Die Nibelungen: Siegfried. I really didn't know what to expect from this project. It seemed rather pretentious and I wasn't very excited about the prospect of listening to it. After listening to to the opening track my fears were put to rest. This album seems so much more focused and precise in every way. They've used a multitude of new sounds and instruments and created just an outstanding record. Lush with pianos and strings that they incorporate perfectly with their original sound, this album is massive and on the verge of being overwhelming. I hope to any god that will hear me that these guys get to score an actual film because I expect it to be nothing short of incredible.

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The Type Records Appreciation Post

I absolutely adore Type Records. John Twells and Stef Lewandowski have an incredible track record and easily the highest quality collection of artists/albums I have seen on any label. It's rare that there is a bad release from this label and is the main reason I keep buying their records. Here are a few of my favourites from this outstanding label. Click on the album title for the download link.

Goldmund - Cordurouy Road

"As Goldmund, Kenniff has disregarded the electronic elements of his music almost entirely in favour of just a piano, a microphone and occasionally a guitar. ‘Corduroy Road’ is thirteen tracks of pure recording, the sound of the piano being opened and the feet on the pedals, the sound of fingers pressing lovingly onto the keys. This is a record of rare and unusual beauty, so shocking and yet unpretentious in its simplicity. When the guitar does emerge from beside the delicately touched piano, it serves as a balancing point for the record. Weaving in and out of the melodies, it adds another layer to what is already incredibly moving music."

Sylvain Chauveau - Nuage

"With a hand-picked group of players on piano, viola, violin and with Sylvain himself on electric guitar the music roots itself in the traditions of great film scoring. There are defnite nods to Krzysztof Kieslowski’s composer Zbigniew Preisner in the deep sense of emotion and melancholy, and Chauveau strips his pieces down to the bare minimum of what might be needed, ridding himself of orchestral excess or meaningless sentimentality. Thus short motifs rise and fall, tangling their way through the album, appearing and re-appearing subtly and beautifully."

Xela - The Dead Sea

"‘The Dead Sea’ is Xela’s ode to all things maritime – with the album’s thematic thread detailing a doomed ocean voyage that meets an abrupt end amongst a swarm of malignant zombies. Drawing on the work of 1970’s horror directors (Dario Argento, Lucio Fulci and George Romero et al.) and their respective soundtracks, ‘The Dead Sea’ pays a considerable debt to the likes of Goblin or Fabio Frizzi – albeit frayed with a bloodied disposition that reveals a love of Earth, Circle and Wolf Eyes. Nowhere near as oppressive as this description could have you believe, Xela also exposes a deep seam of kaleidoscopic folk amongst his collection, with generous nods going to the freewheeling antics of labels such as Fonal and The Jewelled Antler Collective."

Peter Broderick - Float

"'Float’ is an album which has a definite narrative – a fan of film soundtracks and the films themselves Peter decided early on to make an album which was not simply a collection of random tracks. Rather we hear themes appear and re-appear, motifs to signal the different acts of the record and characters, sometimes in the shape of instruments themselves dropping in and out as if through some thick French cigarette smoke. Even the titles of the tracks themselves could tell a story and as you listen to the album, as subconsciously you follow the broad lines which link each piece together."

Deaf Center - Pale Ravine

"Inspired by old silent 8mm film reels, the historical architecture around them and the call of the alluring Norwegian landscape, the duo set out armed with microphones to record whatever they could to capture these feelings. Sounds from battered old records, cash registers, broken machines and a half-dead piano were all blended into the mix to add a warm, homely depth to the recordings. These sounds are most evident in the track ‘Loft’, where knocks and wooden creaks give an almost claustrophobic feel to the music. Again on ‘The Clearing’ a subtle field recording gives the track a rich and involving background and helps build up the mysterious aura before launching a skewed 1930s circus-waltz.

One of the most stand-out influences on ‘Pale Ravine’ is theatre, or at least the romance of all things theatrical. Not so much theatre in all its pretentious excesses, but the childhood apprehensiveness and the sinister undercurrents. From the muffled ticket booth ambience of ‘Lobby’ to the solemn dance of ‘White Lake’ it all appears draped in thick billowing velvet. The dense narrative technique the duo employs is almost like a reverse to a silent film and the soundtrack is provided to be accompanied by the imaginative visuals of the listener.

‘Pale Ravine’ is an album which again manages to blend elements of classical music with electronic music, yet there is something decidedly different which sets it apart from the competition. While there are elements that can be compared with contemporaries such as Max Richter, Marsen Jules or Ryan Teague – Deaf Center is altogether more other-worldly, darker and ultimately very rewarding."

Logreybeam - It's All Just Another Aspect of Mannerism

"Morley is better known as one half of electronica act ‘Yasume’. His gritty percussive structures helped carry their album ‘Where We’re From The Birds Sing A Pretty Song’ to great critical acclaim in 2003. It comes as quite a surprise then that in his debut solo record Morley dispenses with percussion almost entirely to make a record of drifting, crystalline beauty. He considers this as a far more personal work than Yasume, which was more of an outlet for his ADD induced beat creation skills. It is when working by himself he feels he can express his love of musique concrete and abstract sound design.

The album opens in typically classical style, with the sounds of a laptop orchestra tuning their samples on ‘Premonition’. This sets the tone of the record perfectly as it drifts seamlessly from Xenakis-influenced electrical drones into the cold, precise digital manipulations explored previously by artists such as Carsten Nicolai. It stops for breath mid-way through with ‘Beetelguise’, a wonderful reinterpretation of Danny Elfman’s influential theme, proving that there is room for a wry smile in the po-faced world of the avante garde.

As the album draws to a satisfying close with the mysterious ‘Untitled’ we are treated to a piece of field recording, delicately manipulated to brush the senses rather than barrage them with information. This kind of subtlety is rarely achieved, yet Gabriel Morley manages effortlessly. Such simple yet involving beauty comes around far too infrequently, which is what makes ’It’s All Just Another Aspect Of Mannerism’ such an essential work."

Emery Reel - ...For And Acted Upon Through Diversions

"Another supreme release from Resonant, this time round diverting their attention momentarily from the icy log-cabin planes of Iceland and heading west towards Nashville, Tennessee for a sublime quiet/loud post-rock session with Emery Reel. “.....For And Acted Upon Through Diversions” was originally released on the fledgling “First Flight” imprint but has been licensed here by Resonant with much care and attention to detail. The packaging owes much to the Constellation pedigree – dye-cut cardboard slipcase and multi-layered artwork, a good signpost for the shimmering cocophany of instrumentation to be found within. One for fans of Mogwai, Godspeed, Do Make Say Think etc.... Highly Recommended!"

One of my absolute favourite albums, this gem from 2002 seemed to slip under everyone's radar. This is an album I always go back to and recommend to anyone who will listen. If you are a fan of anything remotely related to post-rock you should give this a spin. Fucking gorgeous from beginning to end.

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Daturah

An incredibly overlooked band that just doesn't seem to garner any attention despite releasing two fantastic ambient/post-rock albums. This is an absolute must listen for fans of Mono, Set Fire to Flames and Do Make Say Think.

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Beast, Please Be Still

"Moments of tender sweetness lead to bone crushing sweetness. This group of seven explores time signatures your Senegalese grandfather talked about, using instruments from before and after time, in the context of orchestrated rockopalyptic soundscapes."


I purchased this on a whim and finally gave it a listen today. Very unassuming neo-classical post-rock that includes some unusual instruments not normally found on these type of records. It gives it a very organic sound and is borderline ambient in some instances. Fans of Explosions in the Sky, Rachel's, The Boats and Goldmund should love this.

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