Genre Extravaganza: post rock

Anonymous · 2014-10-26T10:44:49-04:00

Post rock (to me) is characterized groups of musicians creating works based on traditional rock instruments (guitar, drums, bass) while broadening the horizons of traditional rock by experimenting with: timbre, whether using non-traditional textures for traditional rock instruments or bringing in extra-traditional instruments (vibraphone, electronics, organ/keyboards, violins) to fill in traditionally lead rock roles; tempo, whether remaining significantly slower than traditional rock throughout a song (often leading to much longer songs) or changing tempos within a song (math facets of post rock); dynamics, particularly loud-quiet dynamics, at times juxtaposing recorded silence with an explosion of sound or creating a drawn-out, gradually-built-up crescendo that lasts the entire song; and structure, with songs almost always deviating from the traditional verse-chorus-verse structure and at times switching structure within songs, like some progressive rock. There is as much, if not more, instrumental songs as there are sung songs (which strays from traditional rock), and often the groups' sound expands the boundaries of rock into jazz and classical territories. All post-rock groups experiment upon at least one or all of these musical features, and the end product can either sound very similar to a traditional rock song, or nothing like it, which is why "Post Rock" is a trashcan genre tag. When something post-'90 can't be pigeonholed into a cultural phenomenon (e.g. grunge, slocore) or some other more musically cohesive genre, it's thrown into post rock. The proto-post rock mantle is often given to Public Image Ltd. for their work on Metal BoxSecond Edition and Flowers of Romance, for their free-er structures, timbre-bending guitar and bass, and the incorporated tape music into the latter (probably other things too). I'm sure PIL had significant influence on at least Slint and many of the British post rock bands, but it's difficult for me to make any direct connection (as a side note, David Pajo of Slint has mentioned that Suicide's self-titled debut (which I find similar in feel to Metal BoxSecond Edition, is among his most favorite albums). For my purposes, post-rock begins in 1988 with Slint's Tweez and Talk Talk's Spirit of Eden. On these albums, both groups experiment with every feature I mentioned in the first paragraph, though Slint would go on to mature significantly. Spirit of Eden is fully-matured Talk Talk, is a meld of rock, jazz and classical, is a somber journey to ascendance, is a masterpiece, and is featured towards the bottom as one of my favorite post-rock albums. Tweez is largely ruined by Albini's production (I adore his production elsewhere but he was still new to it here), where he would fill in the quiet with taped breakroom chatter or gulps or breaking glass, and threw down a sound on Pajo's and McMahon's guitar that could have been transplanted on any Jesus Lizard or Big Black guitar. Its structure is also simple, with many albums featuring an intro, the meat, and an outro, exiting within less than three minutes on most songs, but the album set a template for experimentation that Slint would continue towards, and would ultimately become a template for what post rock is. Recorded in '89 but not released until '94, Slint's self-titled EP featured the bridge between Tweez and their next album in "Glenn" which featured a more complex structure resulting in a longer song, and significant quiet (thanks to Albini's new philosophy of not over-manipulating a band's sound while producing them), and an urgency, a franticness, a gloom, which would come to characterize Slint. (As a side note, each of Tweez's songs is named after the members' parents. Ethan Buckler, the absolutely fantastic bassist featured on Tweez, left the band because he was so displeased with Albini's recording of Tweez. "Glenn" is named after the new bassists' (Todd Brashear's) father.) '91 saw the release of both Talk Talk's and Slint's final, and arguably best, albums, Laughing Stock and Spiderland. Both albums experiment with all the musical features I mentioned in the first paragraph, solidifying the template for post rock, and both are transcendent in their emotiveness, and, as a result, both remain some of the most-revered albums in post rock. For further reading on Slint, I suggest the (140 small pages) Spiderland by Scott Tennent from the 33 1/3 series; it's a fantastic read spanning their entire career to gain insight into the making of Spiderland, and, of the five I've read in the series thus far (Spiderland, Loveless, There's A Riot Goin' On, Entertainment, Pink Flag), it's easily the best. I'll follow most sections with my own ranking of the albums featured, to facilitate selective listening for the reader, and here it would be: Laughing Stock = Spirit Of Eden = Spiderland > Slint EP > Tweez. Fast Forward to '94 and Bark Psychosis release their debut album, Hex. Some doshbag (Simon Reynolds (he's not nearly as insightful as you think he is)) reviews the album in Mojo Magazine and, upon deciding not much else fits, labels the album as "post rock," thus beginning the perpetuation of a genre tag that holds little water (like so many (though apparently the term had been used before)). The genre tag has been retroactively placed upon bands like Slint and Talk Talk, probably others. From here on out, I'll be dividing post rock roughly in to "scenes." The British post rock bands read something like Bark Psychosis, Pram/Moonshake, Stereolab, Disco Inferno, and Laika. British post rock bands typically include a lot of electronics. Bark Psychosis is pretty much a poor man's Talk Talk (Talk Talk's drummer, Lee Harris, played on Dustsucker), but a poor man's Talk Talk is still pretty damn great. Pram had an organ that sounded like a demented carnival ride, Stereolab has the most-advanced electronics, Moonshake is the most conventional of them all, and Disco Inferno is the most electronically-oriented of them all. I'd rank the albums I've heard as: Hex > Codename: Dustsucker > Emperor Tomato Ketchup > Helium > Transient Random Noise Bursts with Announcements > Sounds of the Satelites > DI Go Pop > Mars Audiac Quintet > Eva Luna > Sargasso Sea > North Pole Radio Station > Silver Apple of the Moon > Dots and Loops > Sound-dust > Peng > Dirty and Divine. The Louisville/Chicago scene, tied together by Touch and Go and Thrill Jockey records, is likely the most prolific and confusing/intertied scene of post rock. In the New York scene, you've got Ui, Soul Coughing, and Six-Finger Satellite. Ui is generally two bassists and a drummer; their primary bassist, Sasha Frere-Jones (respected music critic) plays like he's a poor man's Les Claypool or Bill Laswell or Fred Chalenor or Flea; they've got strong drums to most songs, and lyrics to some songs. Soul Coughing is some weird blend of funk, electronica, and jazz, as is Six Finger Satellite. I'd rank the albums I've heard that I've heard as: Sidelong > Ruby Vroom > El Oso > The Pigeon is the Most Popular Bird > 2 sided EP/Sharpie > Severe Exposure > Paranormalized > The Law of Ruins. OK, honestly, I'm tired of writing, so I'll make this thread in parts. This was the pre-history/beginnings part. I'll make additional parts going into the '90s and '00s. Albums to listen to after this part are Talk Talk's Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock, Slint's Tweez, EP, and, Spiderland, Bark Psychosis' Hex and Codename: Dustsucker, Pram's Helium, Stereolab's Emperor Tomato Ketchup, Moonshake's Eva Luna, DI Go Pop's Inferno Disco, Laika's Sounds of the Satelites, Ui's Sidelong, and Soul Coughing's Ruby Vroom. Next week, probably, I'll continue my history of '90s and '00s post rock, from the Louisville/Chicago scene to Germany. I'll conclude my series of posts with my top 50 post rock albums and top 20 post rock groups

Goto page Previous 12

View previous topic :: View next topic

Kiki

meccalecca wrote:

Great start, even if you did just rank Hex over any and all Stereolab records

I mean there was something 😄

cartoken The Seer Profile
Paris

Hex (or ///Codename: Dustsucker) is better than anything by Talk Talk or Slint 🙄

Kool Keith Sweat

Yo, I just wanted to check in and say that this isn't dead. As mentioned before, I only have one day a week I have time to really go on BEA and last week I went to the Texas Renaissance Festival and this weekend I'll be at Fun Fun Fun Fest. This Monday or next weekend I'll have another installment, and elaborate on everything past the Slint and Talk Talk part and more. Today I just stumbled across a two-disc vinyl copy (along with Weather Report's Heavy Weather) of some jams that the three percussionists from Tortoise did back 2006, titled Bumps, that was produced by Peanut Butter Wolf that was pretty cool. I'll be seeing This Will Destroy You this weekend at the fest. <3

benpaco Who's gonna watch you die? Profile
Missouri

Can't say I'm great at this genre, not very well versed, but here's my favorite of 2014:

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

Mitau by Audrey Fall
_________________

. . . 2016 . . . 2015 . . .

"While I'm alive, I'll make tiny changes to Earth" - Frightened Rabbit

New topic Closed

Topic Posters
All times are GMT
Goto page Previous 12

Page 2 of 2

You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum


Topic	Author	Forum	Replies	Last Post
[ Poll ] Genre Extravaganza Poll: Which Genre ...	Happymeal	Music	26	06/17/2014 00:02 Anonymous
[ Poll ] Genre Extravaganza: Poll on Genre Bre...	Guest	Music	23	09/04/2014 01:37 eyezayzay
Genre Extravaganza: STONER ROCK	mickilennial	Music	21	09/07/2014 17:21 Anonymous
Genre Extravaganza: Indie Pop	SuedeSwede	Music	55	04/27/2015 22:53 Patman360
Genre extravaganza	Guest	Music	202	11/19/2015 16:34 Sometype