Post-Rock Summer
Is this the start of something noisy? Plus the usual music reviews and playlist.
A week or two ago I mentioned that my sister bought me the book on kranky records for my birthday. I’ve finally started to get into it (in fact, I’m almost finished it) and this has coincided with what seems to be a post-rock revival.
I’ll be honest - I never got into post-rock all that deeply. I still find some of it a bit too clever for it’s own good. Other than seeing Battles a couple of times in the mid-00’s I never really bothered to experience it live. In 1996 I was listening to Underworld and Pulp and Oasis, not Labradford and Tortoise.
That said - I’ve been enjoying the book and should probably revisit some of the bands featured in the kranky story. Although it’s not a kranky release I go back to Millions Now Living… relatively often, and I was excited when they signed Standards to Warp in the UK in that strange period where Warp started to get into guitars (Grizzly Bear, Battles, Maximo Park - still the best of all the second wave Britpop bands btw). For me, this kind of music is the link between electronic and rock music, even though both genres can be quite insular and wary of the other (see Noel Gallagher looking bored as fuck watching LCD Soundsystem at Glastonbury, whinging about anything that isn’t two guitars and a drum kit). People have tried crossing rock and electronic music for a long time now, sometimes successfully, sometimes not so much (see Muse - combining the worst bits of rock and the worst bits of techno). I guess the beauty of post-rock, as with all good and interesting music, is that there aren’t any rules. Sometimes there’s just guitars and drums and no electronics, sometimes there’s only electronics, sometimes there’s no drums. I don’t think any post-rock band ever really wanted that genre tag, but we’ve got to describe the un-describable somehow haven’t we?
Over the past few months I’ve seen a few things from this era getting some press, Mogwai had a number one record last year, there’s reissues of Belong (his October Language on Carpark/Spectrum Spools a long-time fave of mine) the Windy & Carl album I mentioned last week and Stars of the Lid (more ambient, but still loosely connected to this whole thing), the Bark Psychosis album got reissued too, and Ghostly reissued Emeralds opus Does It Look Like I’m Here last year plus there’s a first new album from Gastr Del Sol in 25 years… all this can only point to one thing, a Post-Rock Revival!
There’s also plenty of contemporary artists making music you could class as post-rock (or not) both in the US & UK as well as coming out of places like Sweden & Germany. You can call it what you want, but it’s there and it’s worth digging into. It might not sell that much, it might not get that much press until it’s two decades old, but the world is a better place for this kind of music existing. If you needed any further proof of the post-rock revival, then Bandcamp have just done a deep dive into the UK’s post-rock scene, so have a read of that when you get a minute.
Stars of The ‘List
Onto this weeks new releases then…
Death Is Not The End - Soundsystems At Notting Hill Carnival 1984-88 [Death Is Not The End]
Death Is Not The End return with another one of their unmissable ‘snapshot in time’ mixtapes, this time looking at some of the soundsystems that graced Carnival in the mid/late 80’s. No digital on this one, but available from Boomkat & Bandcamp on cassette.
TLF Trio & Moritz Von Oswald - New Songs & Variations [Latency]
Moritz Von Oswald doing jazz? Always a pleasure to hear this kind of stuff if you ask me. This came out last year but is only now getting a physical release. Anyway, this is well worth your time.
Secret Boyfriend - Listeners Guide [Enmossed]
Sadly this one isn’t out on Spotify yet - but it’s a nice time to revisit some of his other albums that came out on Blackest Ever Black. SB was always one of the more underrated acts on the label but responsible for some of my favourite Blackest releases. Check this new one out on Bandcamp, and snag one of the limited LP’s if you like it.
Floating Points - Key 103 [Ninja Tune]
I wasn’t too keen on his previous Ninja single, Del Oro, I found it a bit bland. This is better, it sounds a bit like that Four Tet mix of Eric Prydz. There’s a new album coming, I’m looking forward to hearing it, as when he’s at his best there’s not many better.
Overmono & Ruthven - Gem Lingo (ovr now) [XL]
Overmono are untouchable when it comes to making massive mainstage bangers. This one isn’t that, it’s a bit more downtempo. I’m sure it’ll still be massive in their sets though.
K. Freund - Trash Can Lamb [Soda Gong]
K. Freund is in that same Akron-based sphere that G.S Schray (a long-time IST favourite) operates in - having recorded on other Last Resort releases as Aqueduct Ensemble and Lemon Quartet. This is their solo album, a nice mixture of instrumentation and electronics, creating something that’s slightly sorrowful, but interesting enough to keep your attention.