Post-Rock

I searched the forum, but couldn't any previous threads on the subject so I'm taking the liberty of creating one now.

A little over a year ago, I found myself in a tight spot regarding musical taste. At that time, I had long grown weary of that over-produced and artificial trash known as 'mainstream music' and had fallen into a slump. I still clung to my Nine Inch Nails collection, but other than that, I didn't know where to turn. It was then I stumbled across an album called 'How Strange, Innocence' by a group out of Texas known as Explosions in the Sky. Suffice to say I was overwhelmed. It's difficult to put into words what I felt listening to it, and I'm not even going to being trying to describe to you all, but I would never think of music the same way again.

I have since compiled a little over one thousand tracks from various post-rock groups. That translates into something like eighty-four hours of music. I'm currently listening through 'Dear Monsters, Be Patient' by Followed by Ghosts and I'm enjoying what I've heard thus far.

Fell free to discuss your thoughts on the genre. I know groups like Mogwai have become pretty popular and it would be nice to know what others thought.

I was going to leave you with one of my favorite EitS tracks, but its length exceeds the YouTube time limit. Instead, here's a helluva awesome video by Sigur Ros. Powerful to say the least.



Cheers.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor fans unite.

It's interesting that my musical taste 'story' sort of runs in parallel to yours KayRim, the only thing i still listen to regularly from years ago is my NIN collection all my more recent music is post-rock or electronic.

It is a bit of a hard genre to get into though. It requires you to have the time and willingness to listen to four minutes of silence or mournful strings just for the minute worth of white noise that is the crescendo's at the end of the song. That said it's still my favourite genre of music to listen to.

Some good Post-Rock(ish) bands I'm assuming that any Post Rock fan worth his/hers salt has listened to GSYBE! religiously so i wont include them:

God Is An Astronaut: All is Violent All is Bright: Post rock condensed into 4 minute epics, best songs are Suicide By Star, All is Violent All is Bright and A Deafening Distance.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Mono: Hymn To The Immortal Wind: Traditional Post Rock down to a tee, includes a full orchestra as standard, best songs are Ashes In The Snow, Pure As Snow (Trails Of The Winter Storm).

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The Ascent Of Everest: How Lonely Sits The City: Very dour and depressing post rock, dominated by strings. Best songs are Alas! Alas! The Breath of Life! and If I Could Move Mountains ((I) Majesty And Awe (II) Collapse Into Understanding (III) Gathered Hearts Rise And Sing At The First Breath of Dawn)

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Lights Out Asia: Tanks And Recognizers: Electronic Post Rock borders on Ambient at times, a highly under appreciated band in my opinion. Best songs are Four Square, Spiti Elefas.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Some other worthy mentions are: From Monuments To Masses, A Silver Mt Zion, This Will Destroy You, Do May Say Think and This Is Your Captain Speaking.

GY!BE is godly of course, Sigur Ros are awesome but for some reason I hardly ever listen to them, same with Explosions in the Sky... and Talk Talk's later albums are cool too.

That's all I know, I never really properly looked into the genre.

Familiar with GY!BE, Sigur Ros, EitS, Mogwai, DMST, Mt. Zion, and a bunch of others.

The emergence of post-rock in the late 80s was one of those things I wanted to talk about in that spotlight I was writing but never finished. Anyways, TinyMixTapes' Delorean blog showcased Talk Talk a week ago, material on them is fairly scarce but they're definitely a group that's made a contribution to the development of the sound. Another early band worth checking out is Slint; their second album, Spiderland, is good enough to close the book on 'post-rock' the way Loveless closed the book on 'shoegaze'. Not to say that subsequent developments haven't been spectacular, I suppose that's the virtue of being such a diverse genre. Take for instance, Tortoise, whom I saw a few weeks ago, which was a pretty sweet experience.

Good points. Ask anyone who knows me in real life and they'll tell you patience is not a quality I possess. But I'll gladly listen through a twenty minute epic from GY!BE.

It seems like most music you hear nowadays rely on hooks and catchy refrains in order to keep their listeners interested. One of my pet peeves is when I see people listening to their iPods and they change the song every other minute. They don't even finish the one they were currently listening to. That only goes to show the 'quality' of mainstream music nowadays. The #1 song today will be forgotten next week when the next 'hot' track comes out, no doubt featuring some other clown in order to add appeal.

Speaking of GY!BE, one thing they do so well is capture a sense of dread and hopelessness in their music. The Dead Flag Blues gives me chills every time I give it a listen.

I feel a little ashamed I've never heard of Talk Talk, I'll have to look into them ASAP.

You might not understand our praise if you listen to anything other than Spirit of Eden or Laughing Stock.

As for attitudes to music in general, I don't think post-rock is anymore a bastion for good music than other forms. There's a lot of post-rock that doesn't deserve much attention just as there's a lot of rock that does deserve attention.

Originally Posted by SoggyFrog

You might not understand our praise if you listen to anything other than Spirit of Eden or Laughing Stock.

As for attitudes to music in general, I don't think post-rock is anymore a bastion for good music than other forms. There's a lot of post-rock that doesn't deserve much attention just as there's a lot of rock that does deserve attention.

Agreed some of it can border on self indulgent noodling.

Sort of bumping the thread but i thought i'd bring this up. There's a nice split EP between "We All Inherit The Moon" and "The Ascent Of Everest" which anyone can get for free here:

http://futurerecordings.bandcamp.com...est-split-lp-2

It's legal as the bands released it for free and the link is to the official website.

It's a useful record if you want to get into the genre as it broadly covers the two main sides of the genre. We All Inherit The Moon represent the more abstract side of it with more free flowing music which are more like extended jams then a rigid song structure. Whilst The Ascent Of Everest represent the more traditional bent of post-rock with the build up to crescendo song structure. So it's a good range of sounds.






And it's bloody epic.

Got into this genre a while back starting with EitS, one of my favorite genres now.


If you haven't already, check out This Will Destroy You and especially Russian Circles. Russian Circles is more "post-metal", not as pretty/beautiful as Explosions or Sigur Ros, more dark and gritty. Very talented dudes in the band, Dave Turncrantz is one of my favorite drummers.



Some of my favorite songs in the genre:

Originally Posted by Their Law

Sort of bumping the thread but i thought i'd bring this up. There's a nice split EP between "We All Inherit The Moon" and "The Ascent Of Everest" which anyone can get for free here:

http://futurerecordings.bandcamp.com...est-split-lp-2

It's legal as the bands released it for free and the link is to the official website.

It's a useful record if you want to get into the genre as it broadly covers the two main sides of the genre. We All Inherit The Moon represent the more abstract side of it with more free flowing music which are more like extended jams then a rigid song structure. Whilst The Ascent Of Everest represent the more traditional bent of post-rock with the build up to crescendo song structure. So it's a good range of sounds.






And it's bloody epic.

Wow nice find, giving it a listen at the moment. Here, have some rep.

Well I think that Can, Neu! and Kraftwerk made post Rock 30 years ago. Still:

Originally Posted by Garbarsardar

Well I think that Can, Neu! and Kraftwerk made post Rock 30 years ago. Still:

They were certainly the forefathers of the genre (not sure about Kraftwerk though, but certainly Can), though i think you can really draw the line in the sand with Slint's Spiderland and Talk Talk's Laughing Stock between the beginnings of the genre and the actual birth of it.

Another solid band:

If you like Russian Circles i suggest Isis as well, they practically invented the whole Post-Metal sub genre.

I kind of didn't mention Isis just because they had vocals, but man did I ever have a raging hard on for them. I still absolutely love all of their stuff and come to think of it they might have been the ones to lure me into the "post-whatever" genre. Probably should have mentioned them too, definitely a fantastic band.

Nice, I'll need to look into them.