Post Rock

Record #972: Mogwai – Come On Die Young (1999)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

It’s hard to overstate just how pivotal a release Young Team was. Before that record, the term “post rock” was used to describe a large variety of vaguely experimental groups that drew more from Krautrock and jazz than pop rock traditions: bands like Tortoise, Bark Psychosis, June of 44, even Stereolab.

On the other side of that record though, the term conjures images of heavily effected electric guitars and dramatic songwriting. It was such a sea change that as more bands started using those building blocks to similar effect, they were lambasted as Mogwai ripoffs.

Mogwai themselves seemed conscious of this, and sought to distance themselves. Their sophomore record is still mostly instrumental guitar-based music, but their penchant for increasing the dynamics of the songs until they break apart is largely gone.

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Record #977: Men As Trees – Weltschmerz & Sea of Ice Songs (2023)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

As I’ve written before, I have mostly ignored skramz until I just recently discovered that there’s actually a lot of skramz that I really, really, really, really like. My ignorance of the subgenre was so strong though that I even missed some of the excellent screamo that was happening in my own backyard.

Exhibit A in the case against me is Men As Trees, who would later become Locktender—who I have known and loved for the last few years, but haven’t dug too deeply into their former project (I blame guitarist Andrew Kallicragas’new projects Pack Sounds and JAGALCHI for distracting me). That is, until this reissue, which combines their 2008 LP Weltschmerz with the later EP Sea of Ice Songs (the latter of which was based on the same painter as  Locktender’s Friederich).

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Record #969: Emma Ruth Rundle – Some Heavy Ocean (2014)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

I’ve been going through a massive Emma Ruth Rundle phase lately. It all started when I revisited On Dark Horses and realized that it’s probably in my top fifty records of all time. In the couple weeks since, I’ve revisited the many, many other projects of hers I have.

When that wasn’t enough, I took to Discogs to fill the gaps in my collection. Most glaring of these was Some Heavy Ocean, her first outing as a solo singer-songwriter (as opposed to her proper solo debut, Electric Guitar: One, which was a series of instrumental improvisations). And while Some Heavy Ocean doesn’t have as much metallic heaviness as her later solo records, it’s hardly straightforward folk either. The sonic palette borrows a lot of atmosphere from her time in post rock and shoegaze bands. Continue reading →

Record #967: Flying Saucer Attack – Flying Saucer Attack (1993)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

Speaking of the intersection of ambient music and barely decipherable shoegaze, I realized recently that as often as they come up in conversations about shoegaze, drone, post rock, lo-fi, and other noisy scenes that tickle my brain in a nice way, I haven’t dug too deep into Flying Saucer Attack.

Of course, I’m familiar with them by reputation. I’ve even had a copy of Further for years. But my love for the project has not stretched out much beyond that one record. When I was reading about Belong for the last post though, there was an inordinate amount of comparisons to this, FSA’s self-titled record.

While Further is often lifted up as their most significant record, Flying Saucer Attack is much more song-based, implementing more substantial vocals and ubiquitous drum loops alongside the otherworldly ambient guitar experiments they’re remembered for.

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Record #963: MONO – The Last Dawn & Rays of Darkness (2014)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

Throughout their twenty-five year career, MONO have demonstrated time and time again that they are masters of duality. Their best material finds them unifying the gorgeous orchestration of their “neo-classical” brand of post rock and bombastic catharsis that sometimes stretches into metal territory. Their tours have found them accompanied by a full orchestra while sharing bills with the likes of envy and Boris, and those facts never seem to contradict eachother.

On 2014’s two-part release of The Last Dawn and Rays of Darkness, the Japanese masters give each element of their sound a little more room to breathe, spending one album prioritizing their more orchestral ambitions and the other indulging their most fiery impulses. Continue reading →

Record #959: Holy Fawn – Realms (2015)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

When Holy Fawn’s Death Spells made them the It Band of 2019, they were given a lot of praise for being one of the best new bands in the scene.

Problem there is that they weren’t exactly new. In fact, they had released their first album four years prior. But Realms sat in relative obscurity—even as Death Spells gathered them new fans. It sat as a sort of curiosity on their Spotify page, failing to offer the same crushing heaviness as the record we all came for.

However, as their star has continued to rise—thanks to tours with the likes of Thrice and Deafheaven—more and more fans found their way back to their debut. And while it might indeed lack the moments of black metal catharsis they’ve come to be known for, their trademark dazzling atmospheres and lush sonics were already in full bloom.

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Record #953: Lift to Experience – The Texas-Jerusalem Crossroads (2001)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

It seems no matter how deep I dig (and boy, do I dig deep sometimes), there’s always some seminal release I’ve missed—even in the exact scenes I’ve been trudging through. Take for example Lift to Experience, whom I had never heard of before a review referred to my own band as “We have Lift to Experience at home” (a favorable comparison, I hope).

I’m constantly fascinated by the points of reference other people have when they hear us, so I checked out this band that we were purportedly ripping off. Truth be told, it seems like the only immediate comparison is our shared devotion to overdriven guitars and reverb pedals. But when I divorced them from the comparison, I found a wonderfully idiosyncratic record that lands directly in that sweet spot between shoegaze and post rock that I love so much—bad hip hop parody artwork aside.

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Record #933: Aussitôt Mort – Discographie (2011)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

If you’ve been following along at home, you’ll remember that I recently realized that I like skramz. That brings up a problem though: there’s an awful lot for me to catch up on.

Luckily, most albums in the genre don’t get past the thirty-minute mark. Double luckily, French outfit Aussitôt Mort (translation: As Soon as Dead) released this compilation of their first two releases in a handy package that clocks in just over an hour. While compilations aren’t my first choice (especially when the album art for Montuenga is so good), it’s hard to complain about this collection of songs that combine the blistering passion of screamo with elements of post rock and sludge metal.

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Record #890: Esben and the Witch – Wash the Sins Not Only the Face (2013)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

At this point, I should just ignore my Spotify Daily Mixes. They’re becoming financially ruinous. Almost every time I skim through one, I find something that immediately grabs my attention (see also: Life on Venus, Grivo, Locrian…).

A few weeks ago, I was looking through one of these playlists and was fascinated by the delay-heavy guitar and ethereal alto vocals of “Slow Wave,” so I dug further. What I found was an album that felt like Warpaint had been listening to a lot more goth, post rock, and black metal. Which hit my sensibilities right on the button—which in turn saw me pressing the “order now” button on a copy on Discogs.

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Record #888: Blankenberge – Everything (2021)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald / 1 Comment

Everyone talks about how the internet has made the world smaller, but less attention has been given to how it has expanded microcosms into galaxies. Microgenres have become scenes unto themselves, with legions of bands offering sonic homage to a handful of albums.

Where the term “shoegaze” originally referred to a dozen or so bands around London, the sonic explorations they pioneered have created hosts of acolytes making their own pilgrimages through reverb-and-fuzz-drenched guitars. This scene has further bifurcated itself, with further microscenes forming within the context of an already niche genre (see: dreamgaze, heavy shoegaze, blackgaze, doomgaze, dreamo and more).

One of the more fascinating microscenes I’ve discovered is the Russian shoegaze scene, which is comprised of bands like Life on Venus, Pinkshinyultrablast, and Blankenberge, whose album Everything is quickly becoming a favorite of mine.

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