I figure my recent obsession with the genre deserves some thought. Six months ago I was listening almost entirely to Dream Theater and Radiohead (circa OK Computer, but In Rainbows is easily taking over). Then there’s Rachael Yamagata and Damien Rice, who fill a void that no complex guitar and synthesiser riff can fill. Broken Social Scene and Taking Back Sunday rounded up my disparate but hardly diverse musical input.
Then I hear Amateur Takes Control at one of their early gigs and pretty much went home and recorded every song they had off their MySpace and put them on repeat.
I hadn’t heard anything like them before, and with all the Google-fu in the world I couldn’t find anything like them after.
I still don’t know what exactly I’m looking for — post-rock with a touch of math? Instrumental new prog? Clean tones, sometimes multi-layered and ambient, sometimes tearing up a prog riff; complex rhythms and a powerful low end; tasteful, sparing use of electronics and synths. But above all a strong motif, a melody, a reason for being that so many post-rock bands forget to include in their pieces, too caught up going through the same crescendos and diminuendos and wailing, triple-delayed, feedbacking guitars. Maybe I just don’t have the patience for it, but every EITS or Mono song sounds the same to me. It’s definitely not the length — I know every nook and cranny of A Change of Seasons. I guess they’re just dreadfully boring.
So in my quest for more prog/math/post-rock I’ve easily doubled my library to 20 gigs, and I’ve found some sounds I like enough to pass on:
- Saxon Shore - The Exquisite Death of Saxon Shore and Be a Bright Blue. This was the first glimpse of light after The Album Leaf, American Analog Set, Tristeza, and half a dozen other bands (not that it was all bad, but mostly I got bored quick).
- The Samuel Jackson Five. A bit of jazz thrown into the mix. I’ve heard Easily Misunderstood and I’m looking for their other albums.
- LITE. Math rock is often just some smartasses who’re too cool for prog metal trying to give you a headache, but these guys have some softer pieces I really enjoyed, like Re and Solitude.
- Maybeshewill hit the spot. Sometimes they try to be a bit metal and shit, and it makes me want to strangle a (particularly cute) kitten, but otherwise there’s just the right balance between ambient texture and a kickass lead guitar, plus brilliant use of vocal samples. Both album and EP versions of The Paris Hilton Sex Tape are genius, if you’re looking for somewhere to start.
- Honourable mention goes to UpCDownCLeftCRightCABC+Start, for having great guitar tones and the coolest name ever.
N.B. I guess post-rock is really an evolution of psychedelic, space rock with some modern alt rock sensibilities, but personally I’ve discovered the genre as a breakdown, or distillation, of the complex sound and structure of, say, Paranoid Android or Hell’s Kitchen. Just in case any fanboys take offence with my associating post-rock and prog or metal.
It’s probably a good thing I don’t write much, or often, about music.