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 Box/Second 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 Box/Second 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
How about prog and, most notably, Rock Bottom? Do you feel there's any kind of connection, for instance with Hollis' work?
Talk Talk definitely drew from the Canterbury scene, and I'd be surprised if other post rock bands didn't. And several post rock bands can be classified as some sort of prog, so I'd be surprised if they didn't draw from some sort of prog. I'm not too concerned with exact influences though.
And don't pay too much attention to the rankings, just listen. Though Hex is better than anything Stereolab ever did
Talk Talk definitely drew from the Canterbury scene, and I'd be surprised if other post rock bands didn't. And several post rock bands can be classified as some sort of prog, so I'd be surprised if they didn't draw from some sort of prog. I'm not too concerned with exact influences though.
And don't pay too much attention to the rankings, just listen. Though Hex is better than anything Stereolab ever did
Well, I'll heartily disagree with you. I think Transient Random Noise Bursts is better than anything Talk Talk ever did after all. But it's all great anyways.
I'm know you're a pretty strong advocate of Ganger, they coming in the next post? Also Cul De Sac is probably worth mentioning in this timeframe I imagine.
And what about Add N To (X)? Are they maybe a bit too electronic to really fall into the post-rock world?
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