Tag Archives: Post Rock

Nordic Giants – A Thousand Furs: Live at The Deaf Institute, Manchester

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Youthful trio A Thousand Furs mix delicate chords, synth and pulsing alt-rock with a vocal performance soaked in sensitivity. Their charming in between banter concerning graveyards aside, they garner many an approving nod from the near full room. Reminiscent of Jeff Buckley, his wiry frame belies the angelic vocal backed with some fine fretwork. Angular, emotional rock done right. A real one to watch.

Athousandfurs, by Rich Price Phptography

Athousandfurs, by Rich Price Phptography

Athousandfurs, by Rich Price Phptography

Athousandfurs, by Rich Price Phptography

From the moment the strange visuals and haunting electronic pulses begin the audience are captivated. ‘Evolve Or Perish’ sees the two band members draped in attire reminiscent of the “hawkmen” in action hero epic Flash Gordon. Despite the elaborate costumes the feathered duo, let the music speak for itself delivering an astounding sound clash of piano, synth, violin bowed guitars in a truly exhilarating assault on the senses.

Nordic Giants, by Rich Price Phptography

Nordic Giants, by Rich Price Photography


The strange films that accompany their set were a mysterious ailment causes scuba divers to only be able to breathe e from oxygen tanks who they murder each other for. Their splendid presentation fits their opulent, yet imitate surroundings. Transfixed the audience hang on each sample, eerie monologues augmented by lush piano and tribal rhythms.


‘Rapture’ featuring the exquisite vocals of Beth Cannon lures you into a clandestine world from which you never wish to escape so mesmerising is the experience.

Nordic Giants, by Rich Price Photography

Nordic Giants, by Rich Price Photography

Much of tonight’s set is derived from debut full length A Séance Of Dark Delusions (Kscope) in its entirety before bringing out some inspired older cuts, like the bewitching ‘Together’. This is a truly electrifying experience which elevates performance art into brave new forms. Two thirds of A Thousand Furs join the ‘Giants for a spellbinding performance of ‘Dissolve’ putting the icing on the cake of a truly momentous evening.

Nordic Giants, by Rich Price Photography

Nordic Giants, by Rich Price Photography

WORDS BY ROSS BAKER

PHOTOS BY RICH PRICE PHOTOGRAPHY


Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Total Life: Live at The Albert Hall, Manchester

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The majestic confines of the Albert Hall play host to the enigmatic clandestine outfit Godspeed You! Black Emperor, on this hot spring evening. As the light fades through the elegant stained glass windows solo member drone act Total Life provide something of an endurance test. Devoting nearly an hour to all of three notes may be acceptable when the visual aspect of someone like Sunn0))) is in place, but when it is merely a chap crouched behind a guitar case, fiddling with a laptop and synth then the idea of watching paint dry becomes quiet an attractive alternative to this set of self-indulgent navel-gazing drudgery.

Enter Canada’s premier post rock export. Greeted in a suitably reverential fashion with polite applause lapsing into hushed anticipation the crowd seem grateful just to experience their heroes in such an opulent setting. Over the nine song set which follows Godspeed You! Black Emperor, are simply breath taking. Certainly the omission of numbers like ‘East Hastings’ may be an issue to some, but from the moment violinist Sophie Trudeau leads her colleagues into opener ‘Hope Drone’ the hall is lost in a reverie of wonder. Delivered against a backdrop of eerie projections, slogans such as ‘Out Of Order’ and ‘Fuck America’ appear, their antiauthoritarian rhetoric is absorbed in a far more accessible fashion than having it screaming right at you.

New opus ‘Asunder, Sweet And Other Distress’ is aired in its entirety veering from majesty to dissonant often savage territory. It is a brutal performance art piece where each composition is given its time in the spotlight. Trudeau and company encircled with their back to the audience, only acknowledge their adoring public following the conclusion of the set but to have babbled on between tracks would have spoiled the mood and detracted from the experience.

Two new compositions are aired tonight suggest that, whatever the future holds for this trailblazing octet it will be as mysterious and compelling as ever. Rightfully occupying their very own plain of existence, GYBE are already carving a new chapter in a legacy as compelling as it is unconventional.

 

ROSS BAKER


City of Ships – Ultraluminal

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It took me about three seconds of the opening bars of ‘The Light You Stole’, the first track on City of Ships’ third, full length album, the really quite brilliant Ultraluminal (Translation Loss) to know that I had fallen in love with it. In fact, it took just one listen of this record to realise that Ultraluminal had gotten under my skin and was going to stay there like a freshly inked tattoo. City of Ships are positively brimming with intelligence, insight and verve. This is the sort of record that makes you feel a little bit smarter, a bit better about yourself and a lot better about the world.

On the band’s second record, the underground classic of Minor World (Sound Study), their brilliance with atmospherics and textures was matched by a muscularity and power that beguiled and bewitched. On Ultraluminal, the first thing you’re struck by is the brevity of it all. This is a album of distillation: of thought process, of musical dexterity, of creative imagination.

As with many bands where lazy listeners look for an easy and comforting pigeonhole, you could lump City of Ships into that strange hinterland known as post-rock whatever that means. Admittedly, there’s certainly plenty of guitar driven histrionics that anyone with a passing knowledge of Thrice or Quicksand would find to their liking but I think that does them something of a disservice.  On ‘Alarm’, for example, I found myself being swept back to my college shoe-gazing days with all the psychedelic and swooning melodies that conjures in the memory. Equally, the plaintive and emotional vocals of lead singer Eric Jernigan means that you’re vicariously living his pain, joy and ennui as clearly and acutely as he is rather than looking for a convenient label to pin on them. Have a listen to the mournful ‘Lost It’ or the punky and feedback drenched ‘Private Party’ and you’ll get a sense of what I’m talking about.

There’s a focus and immediacy to the tracks on Ultraluminal that also impresses. Ultraluminal is notable for its punk aesthetic allied to a renewed belief in the power of writing, you know, actual songs. The closing track ‘Mile High’ perhaps being a case in point: it’s a minor chord, melancholic masterpiece. You don’t get alliteration like that everyday, kids.

Ultraluminal is a record that I keep thinking about when it’s not on and keep thinking about when it is on. You know that old, familiar adage about a band being able to do no wrong; on Ultraluminal, you get the idea that the hyperbole might just be justified.

 

9.0/10

City of Ships on Facebook

 

MAT DAVIES


Maybeshewill Release New Video For Sanctuary

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maybeshewill fair youth

Instrumental Post-Rockers Maybeshewill have released a new video for their track ‘Sanctuary’. Filmed on their recent tour, it is the second video off of the recently wide-released Fair Youth (Superball), which first came out in Europe last fall. The video can be seen below:

 

 

Commenting on the making of the video the band released a statement:

“Last year we embarked on the most ambitious tour of our lives across Europe, Asia and Australasia. We took a bunch of cameras with us an attempted to document it in some meaningful way that captured what was one of the most incredible experiences of our lives. This video for ‘Sanctuary’ is the result of that.“

The band is currently booking more live dates in Europe for may with two booked and announced already being the UK and Belgium.


Hiram-Maxim – Hiram-Maxim

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In an age where physical releases are going the way of the dodo thanks to the all-conquering march of the digital epoch, it’s heartening when new bands still care enough about their fans to not only produce something that buyers can hold in their hands, but also to put real effort into making each copy a thing of beauty. The self-titled debut album from Cleveland, Ohio based Hiram-Maxim comes complete with a 100-page art book courtesy of local graphic designer Ron Kretsch, and his disturbing black and white images are the perfect accompaniment to the thirty-seven minutes of sprawling, oppressive psychedelia that comprise this debut release.

Spread over four tracks, the music on Hiram-Maxim (Aqualamb) sounds mostly improvised, giving it a genuine feeling of unease as the four band members craft sounds that could be the soundtrack to undergoing a particularly intense k-hole whilst locked in a Salvador Dali museum overnight. The loose, free-form approach often gives way to violent bursts of noise such as on the brutally harsh ‘Can’t Stop’ which sounds as if Throbbing Gristle had been force-fed mescaline. Elsewhere, the tortuous waltz of album opener ‘Visceral’ at least makes an attempt to appear normal in a kind of Sonic Youth-gone-wrong manner while the sparse post-rock melodies and languid singing of ‘One’ fight for prominence with buzzing drone and dissonant drumbeats to create an atmosphere of bemused melancholy.

Offering so much more than your average meat-and-potatoes heavy band, Hiram-Maxim may not have a clue where their compositions are going, but the terrain they visit on the way is freaky and challenging in the way all good psych should be, and crucially never feels pretentious. If you fancy a ramble into dissonant soundscapes where anything could happen then give this impressive first effort a spin and tune your mind into something very strange yet oddly nourishing.

 

7.5/10

Hiram-Maxim on Facebook

 

JAMES CONWAY


Code – Mut

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Being weird used to be so much easier.  In the 80’s and early 90’s all you needed to do was throw in a bit of keyboards, some cod-operatic singing and the odd electronic boing noise and you were a maverick genre-bending genius.  Unfortunately for the weirdos, there’s nothing like two decades of repetition to normalise even the boldest experiment, and in 2015 being weird is harder than ever.

That was a very round-about way of saying that, although Code seem desperate to be seen as “progressive” or “avant-garde”, there’s very little on Mut (Agonia) that you won’t have heard before.  Having now entirely shed their Black Metal origins, the core sound here could best be described as [cough, spit] “post-rock”, though more dynamic and catchy than is generally the case.  A strong grasp of theatrics and a tendency towards the carnivalesque often calls to mind a more straight-laced, Rock-steady take on La Masquerade Infernale (Misanthropy) era Arcturus.

Whether or not Mut is truly “experimental” or “weird” is, of course, much less important than whether or not it’s actually any good, but I’ve been putting that off so far because it’s a considerably harder question to answer.  Code have a solid grasp of song-writing dynamics, and there are some effectively catchy tracks on here, but they also have a tendency to indulge their “quirky” side to an extent that can become tiresome quickly.  They also haven’t quite reconciled their catchy, carnivàle instincts with their new-found “post-rock” contemplative side, which can lead to some rather dull passages stretching between interesting sections.

If this review has leaned towards the negative so far, that’s only part of the story. Mut is a boldly written, tightly performed album with enough of its own identity to bring it out – at least partly – from the long shadows cast by its “avant garde” Black Metal forefathers and the Nerd Kings of post-rock, and there are going to be plenty of people out there who will enjoy it a lot more than I did. Ultimately, however, the overriding impression at this end was that of a band so enamoured with their own strangeness that they don’t quite deliver enough beyond it.

 

6.5/10

Code on Facebook

 

RICHIE HR


Pelican – The Cliff EP

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pelican the cliff EP cover art

 

In the world of post-rock, there are a lot of pretenders to the throne, but few worthy of the crown. The holy trinity of the genre in the USA falls to Russian Circles, Junius and, Pelican. As they have once before in their career, Pelican have teamed up with Allan Epley (Shiner, The Life And Times) to add his vocal prowess to their new EP, The Cliff (Southern Lord). On paper what looks like just a good match, becomes an exquisite exercise in songcraft, self-restraint, and true talent.

The main track ‘The Cliff’ has the best of Pelican’s breed working for it. Quietly epic, building slowly and entrancing you with each cadence. Hypnotic drums fall and rise in time with your breathing and brain patterns. Beating out a compelling rhythm that beckons to you follow like a spirit. The layers of guitars, a Pelican trademark, spinning motifs and head crushing waves. Added to this expert mix is Epley’s vocals which as a much an instrument as the band. If you are unfamiliar with his work, Epley has a voice not unlike a young Mark Lanegan (Screaming Trees/Mad Season). Somber, but full of gravitas and character, Epley’s powerful tones weigh so heavy, it contrasts beautifully with the sunny (for a Pelican song) final stanza.

The other original song on the EP has been termed a leftover from Forever Becoming (also Southern Lord). However, it’s a track so deep and triumphant, I kind of wished they saved it for their next album. It’s like the soundtrack to sports movie, but only for the final montage part. The other two tracks are remixes of ‘The Cliff’. One remix, by Mr. Justin K. Brodrick (Godflesh/JK Flesh) is sans vocals, but enhances the dream-scape aspect of the guitars with synths and adds a heavier bass mix. Their is also an echo effect on the drums that give a surreal sleep-walking feeling to the listener as well. It definitely takes a killer track to the next level. The other track is remixed by Palms (Aaron Harris & Bryant Clifford Meyer). This track revs up the beat quotient, and adds more a dynamic flow than before. The vocals have a great delay loop on them, and some sick backwards guitars too. This release (digital or vinyl) should be enough of a morsel to tide you over until the next full-length.

 

8.5/10

KEITH CHACHKES


Torche – Restarter

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Torche Restarter Album cover

 

Sludge/stoner metal vets, Torche, have returned with their Relapse Records debut, Restarter. I felt as if the title Restarter is absolutely perfect for this album as I cannot seem to stop playing it and just have to give it just one more spin. There truly is something for everyone on this album as the sound ranges from your slow, doom-like sludge songs to what seems like full-blown punk. This album clocks in at just over the 30 minute mark which turns out to be the album’s only downfall as I was itching for more after the title track closer. Having said that, I am a firm believer in quality not quantity so I am thinking it is more of a blessing in disguise. Picking out my favorite tracks seemed like an easy task on the first time through, but after five or so times through, such a task grew more and more difficult.

For me, I found the riff centered tracks on Restarter to be the highlights. The third track in, ‘Minions’, really embodied this well. A simple, repeating, yet catchy riff carries the whole song and keeps your head bobbing the whole time. Not to mention some very crafty but not distracting guitar leads towards the end of the track that closes out the journey. Another fun slow and heavy track with a simple yet fun riff is ‘No Servants.’ On top of the great guitar work, I feel the drum work was exceptional and added a whole new element to the sludge feel. One of the more upbeat and, well, party songs on the album is ‘Blasted’. The riff in this track really brings out the inner party monster in us all and, dare I say, reminded me of Andrew W.K. just a bit. This song was one of the shorter ones coming in at just over two and a half minutes but I feel it plays an important role in the album as the final four tracks after this are in your face and heavy to close out. One of those tracks is the closer, ‘Restarter’ which I feel brought the same energy as the upbeat tracks like ‘Blasted’ and ‘Loose Men’ but still stayed true to the sludge/stoner emotions as earlier tunes such as ‘Annihilation Affair’ and ‘Minions’. This title track closer is also the longest track on the album which is surprisingly over the eight and a half minute mark, which surpasses the other tracks by far. Another great riff and following leads from Steve Brooks as well as great crescendo drum parts from Rick Smith. ‘Restarter’ is one of my favorite tracks to listen to on the album for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, the post metal influences really come to fruition on this track better than the rest of the album. Not that the rest of the album needed to sound like post metal, but I just really dug the ride the song puts me on. The other reason, is it is the closing track and it makes you feel like you are going through a wormhole back to where your journey all started so you can (ready for this?) restart it. See what I did there?

Overall, Torche has really out done themselves with only their first release with a strong label such as Relapse Records and I am more than excited what is in the future for these guys. The production was spot on as you can clearly hear all instruments at just the right levels and the vocals come across as another instrument with precise volume and quality. I find it extremely difficult to try and give this album a bad mark but it seems like all I could complain about was the length (31+ minutes, 10 tracks). My only hope is that at the end of 2015, my peers here at Ghost Cult will do right and include “Restarter” in their Top 20 year-end lists so Torche can get a spot in the Top 50. It certainly is well deserved.

Torche, photo by Janette Valentine

Torche, photo by Janette Valentine

9.0/10

TIM LEDIN


Junius to Embark on Headline Tour of Western Europe

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junius tour poster

 

Post-rock masters Junius have plotted a headline trek of dates across western Europe, beginning this April. The band is on the road supporting 2014’s brilliant Days of The Fallen Sun EP (Prosthetic). Most of the dates have City of Ships as the supporting act and notable stops on the tour include an appearance at this year’s epic Roadburn Festival and ending with the Hit The Deck fest in the UK.

 

Press Notes:

Post-rock outfit JUNIUS has announced a series of headlining dates across western Europe this April surrounding their appearance at The Netherlands’ prestigous annual Roadburn Festival (Solstafir, Russian Circles, Anathema), which this year is being curated by Ivar Bjørnson (Enslaved) and Wardruna’s Einar “Kvitrafn” Selvik. The band will kick off their tour in Siegen, Germany on April 9 with support from Brooklyn-based rock trio City of Ships and wrap up two weeks later with a two-date appearance at UK’s Hit the Deck Festival (Cancer Bats, While She Sleeps) in Bristol and Nottingham!

JUNIUS-DOTFS_Digital_Cover-500-72dpi

TOUR DATES

4/9 Siegen, DE – Vortex #

4/10 Tilburg, NL – Roadburn Festival @ 015 Venue

4/11 Karlsruhe, DE – Dudefest

4/12 Essen, DE – Panic Room #

4/13 Hamburg, DE – Headcrash #

4/14 Copenhagen, DK – UnderWerket #

4/15 Berlin, DE – Magnet #

4/16 Leipzig, DE – Conne Island #

4/17 Wien, AT – Arena #

4/18 Milano, IT – Lo Fi Club (Pescara Festival) #

4/19 Munchen, DE – Feierwerk #

4/22 Paris, FR – Covent Garden #

4/23 Antwerp, BE – Kavka #

4/24 London, UK – Barfly #

4/25 Bristol, UK – Hit The Deck Festival

4/26 Nottingham, UK – Hit The Deck Festival

# with City of Ships


Russian Circles – Mutoid Man: Live At The Sinclair, Boston MA

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russian circles tour poster boston 2014

 

On a cold night late in the year, we were able to gather to catch the brief and stunning 10 year anniversary tour of Russian Circles. The Sinclair was packed with excited fans who mobbed the merch tables for custom vinyl and limited-edition shirts. No hats though… maybe next winter my beanie hat fetish will get cured. The venue was indeed full up with fans and there was a lot of excitement in the room for the evening ahead.

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Opening things up was the return of Mutoid Man, headed up by Cave In’s Steven Brodsky. Brodsky is a post-rock legend in his own right, and Cave In had just recently took this very stage, opening a similar event for the Doomriders anniversary show, so Brodsky gets a heroes welcome. I realize that in New England we get to see and hear him and his projects more than most, so we are lucky. Meanwhile the band just blazed through most of their début, what sounded like one new song, and killer covers of Dio-era Black Sabbath (with a guest singer, their merch girl, amazing voice and all) and a Marvellettes song (wtf?). The band is killer and you have to marvel at how economical and brutal a drummer Ben Koller (Converge, All Pigs Must Die) is. He was insane on the kit.

 

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Russian Circles is in a select few bands in the post-metal genre really worth spending a lot of time with. Much like the greats of Jazz or Prog rock, repeated listens of Russian Circles lets you discover new bits of songs you never realized existed, every time you hear them. Live, they are even better. They somehow stretch out and expand the depth of the each song they perform while never coloring too far outside the lines. Maybe its the 3000 guitar pedals the band has.

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initially I was a little too close to of one of the PA speakers so for the first few songs, I was really focused on the players while my ear drums exploded. From the third song ‘Carpe’ on, I backed up a little in the crowd and really soaked in the sounds. It was as perfect a performance I had seen lately. Dave Turncrantz, Mike Sullivan, and Brian Cook are three players in synchronicity, with no visual cues or barely a passing glance to each other. Just three guys just letting the music flow through them. The crowd was in awe the entire time. After ‘Geneva’, it felt like the show was over for the night. However the players returned several more times to stun the crowd with renditions of ‘Mlàdek’, ‘Death Rides a Horse’ and ‘Youngblood’. Although tonight was night of looking back at their history, one can only imagine what the future holds, as the band prepares a new album for later in 2015.

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[slideshow_deploy id=’16229′]

Russian Circles Set List:

Deficit

Carpe

309

Harper Lewis

1777

Station

Geneva

Encore:

Mlàdek

Death Rides a Horse

Youngblood

Russian Circles on Facebook

Mutoid Man on Facebook

 

WORDS BY KEITH CHACHKES

PHOTOS BY EMMA PARSONS PHOTOGRAPHY