Post Rock

[Trane]

Zuffanti going Post rocjk





I still have the album - probably in my top 15 of the Post-Rock genre

[spacefreak]

And right now I'm listening to O.Rang's Herd of Instinct -- this is pretty odd, fascinating stuff. I had no idea it even existed!

The other .O.Rang album, "Fields and Waves", is equally good.

[interbellum]

Looking forward to read this one: Jeanette Leech: "Fearless. The Making Of Post-Rock".

If you have some time left you could watch this interview with Graham Sutton (Bark Psychosis) and Jeanette Leech:

[iguana]

here are a few that i took home:

BOSSK


ROLO TOMASSi


AND SO i WATCH YOU FROM AFAR

[mellotron storm]

Really enjoying WE LOST THE SEA's Departure Songs about people who lost their lives in heroic and unselfish ways. Just some killer instrumental bits and lot of beauty too. No vocals but quite a few samples.

[mellotron storm]

Hugues I don't why I couldn't get into LAZONA especially since they're one of the few PostRock bands to use mellotron. Another one that uses it though that I do really like is the Swiss band Equus.

[aith01]

So on the subject of post rock:

Last weekend, my younger brother and his wife came over to my house to visit for a while. The sun was starting to set and the dim evening light was shining into the living room through the open window blinds; so I turned all the lights off, cracked open a couple beers for us, and then put on my vinyl copy of Spirit of Eden.

He had never listened to Talk Talk before, aside from "It's My Life" (which he liked). He was quite floored by SoE though.

About halfway through the second track, Eden, he remarked on how much it reminded him of the Hogarth-era Marillion and that he thought Talk Talk must have been an influence on them. He also could not get over how pristine the sound was, and how much you could hear in the sonic space of that album.

When it was finished, he said to me that every once in a while something comes along that reminds him there is still music out there that he has an emotional response to, and Spirit of Eden was one of them. I also let him hear a little bit of The Colour of Spring before we had to go get dinner.

I had a feeling that he would really like them, but it was just a matter of the circumstances being right for him to really just give it a good listen. And that is definitely one record that is meant to be listened to. It was perfect timing too, with the setting sun filling the room and then gradually dimming into darkness while we sipped Aventinus and listened to the LP. Really special actually.

[iguana]

So on the subject of post rock:

Last weekend, my younger brother and his wife came over to my house to visit for a while. The sun was starting to set and the dim evening light was shining into the living room through the open window blinds; so I turned all the lights off, cracked open a couple beers for us, and then put on my vinyl copy of Spirit of Eden.

He had never listened to Talk Talk before, aside from "It's My Life" (which he liked). He was quite floored by SoE though.

About halfway through the second track, Eden, he remarked on how much it reminded him of the Hogarth-era Marillion and that he thought Talk Talk must have been an influence on them. He also could not get over how pristine the sound was, and how much you could hear in the sonic space of that album.

When it was finished, he said to me that every once in a while something comes along that reminds him there is still music out there that he has an emotional response to, and Spirit of Eden was one of them. I also let him hear a little bit of The Colour of Spring before we had to go get dinner.

I had a feeling that he would really like them, but it was just a matter of the circumstances being right for him to really just give it a good listen. And that is definitely one record that is meant to be listened to. It was perfect timing too, with the setting sun filling the room and then gradually dimming into darkness while we sipped Aventinus and listened to the LP. Really special actually.

i agree all the way with this … although “the colour of spring” will always remain as my favourite TALK TALK album ever … probably because i also enjoyed them as an avant garde pop act and i do cherish the transitional period evident on that album. h-MARiLLiON have mentioned the impact that TT had on them several times before; in fact i recall reading that robbie macintosh’s heartrending performance on “i don’t believe in you” is one of steve rothery’s favourite guitar solos ever. and he should know.

[Mascodagama]

So on the subject of post rock:

Last weekend, my younger brother and his wife came over to my house to visit for a while. The sun was starting to set and the dim evening light was shining into the living room through the open window blinds; so I turned all the lights off, cracked open a couple beers for us, and then put on my vinyl copy of Spirit of Eden.

He had never listened to Talk Talk before, aside from "It's My Life" (which he liked). He was quite floored by SoE though.

About halfway through the second track, Eden, he remarked on how much it reminded him of the Hogarth-era Marillion and that he thought Talk Talk must have been an influence on them. He also could not get over how pristine the sound was, and how much you could hear in the sonic space of that album.

When it was finished, he said to me that every once in a while something comes along that reminds him there is still music out there that he has an emotional response to, and Spirit of Eden was one of them. I also let him hear a little bit of The Colour of Spring before we had to go get dinner.

I had a feeling that he would really like them, but it was just a matter of the circumstances being right for him to really just give it a good listen. And that is definitely one record that is meant to be listened to. It was perfect timing too, with the setting sun filling the room and then gradually dimming into darkness while we sipped Aventinus and listened to the LP. Really special actually.

Lovely story. One of the all-time great albums that not enough people have been exposed to.

[iguana]

Lovely story. One of the all-time great albums that not enough people have been exposed to.

you know what? with hindsight i would have loved to be a fly on the wall when the band was discussing their next moves with their increasingly suffering record company (EMI at the time) within which

• two years of recording in a derelict church in the fens
• absolutely no record company interference welcome whatsoever
• no hit singles to be considered in the remotest
• no track to be allowed for editing and release to the radio prohibited
• oh, while we are at it: no touring … that material cannot ever be reproduced on stage in a concert setting

EMI eventually breached contract in a major huff and released an edited version of “i believe in you” to the radio … and forced TT to lip-synch it on a dutch pop programme. for their follow up (“laughing stock”, 1991) the band moved to VERVE/POLYGRAM and that was that. EMI have subsequently exploited their pop/post-pop catalogue on compilations and remix albums too numerous to mention. mark hollis did one solo album in 1998 which manages to reduce the essence of those two final TT albums to an even more intensified essence and “live in london 1986” was released in 1999. further spin offs are O-RANG and RUSTIN MAN, featuring beth gibbons from PORTiSHEAD.

this is not a derailment into a TALK TALK thread. it merely charts the beginning of post rock as many sources would claim hereafter. feast your eyes on an increasingly pissed off maestro hollis:

[chalkpie]

Lovely story. One of the all-time great albums that not enough people have been exposed to.

Yes, great story man!

[aith01]

i agree all the way with this … although “the colour of spring” will always remain as my favourite TALK TALK album ever … probably because i also enjoyed them as an avant garde pop act and i do cherish the transitional period evident on that album. h-MARiLLiON have mentioned the impact that TT had on them several times before; in fact i recall reading that robbie macintosh’s heartrending performance on “i don’t believe in you” is one of steve rothery’s favourite guitar solos ever. and he should know.

Oh yeah! I love The Colour of Spring, it's great. Like you said, Colour captured them during a transition and it was really interesting to see even in hindsight.

I believe I've seen Marillion and/or Hogarth mention Talk Talk as well; definitely think there's a line that could be drawn between TT's Colour/Spirit and Marillion's Brave/Afraid of Sunlight. Never heard that about Rothery commenting on the guitar solo on "I Don't Believe In You", so that's really cool.

Lovely story. One of the all-time great albums that not enough people have been exposed to.

Yes, great story man!

Thanks guys! It was really neat to get to introduce my brother to some music he had never heard before, and see the impact it made in person.

And it is a great album that deserves to be heard by way more people.

[Splicer]

I'm going to try to give post rock another try - it's eluded me so far. As a person who loves lush melodies, post rock's lack of them has put me in the category of people who find the music not exactly boring, but someone annoyingly repetitive. I just haven't listened enough to even be able to tell the difference between one band and the next.

[Scrotum Scissor]

As a person who loves lush melodies, post rock's lack of them has put me in the category of people who find the music not exactly boring, but someone annoyingly repetitive.

"Post-rock" as a whole was usually full of melody. But the concept of "melody" wasn't somehow created by "prog"/Genesis/Yes-bands, so the definition may have something to do with it. I find more melody in a single Stereolab- or Sea&Cake-album than I do in the entire discography of most so-called "classic prog" bands. Even Tortoise's most decried release, It's All Around You (2004), is practically chocked with melody.

[iguana]

I'm going to try to give post rock another try - it's eluded me so far. As a person who loves lush melodies, post rock's lack of them has put me in the category of people who find the music not exactly boring, but someone annoyingly repetitive. I just haven't listened enough to even be able to tell the difference between one band and the next.

MONO (jp), SIGUR ROS, EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY … high lushness degrees in melody galore, try these for size.

[Splicer]

"Post-rock" as a whole was usually full of melody. But the concept of "melody" wasn't somehow created by "prog"/Genesis/Yes-bands, so the definition may have something to do with it. I find more melody in a single Stereolab- or Sea&Cake-album than I do in the entire discography of most so-called "classic prog" bands. Even Tortoise's most decried release, It's All Around You (2004), is practically chocked with melody.

My notion of melody wasn't created by Rock bands, it was reflected by them. I suppose my notion of melody goes from late Romantic to mid-20th Century.

[Scrotum Scissor]

my notion of melody goes from late Romantic to mid-20th Century.

Well, from most post-rock that I've heard, its reflection of melody draws from baroque and pretty much until late-period developments in contemporary music. Melody not only as "repeated ostinato" but, I suppose, as constellations of harmonics and allsorts of dynamic and dissonance at that.

Don't get me wrong; minimalistic, repetitive post-rock does exist. But again there's the question of definition, as some would certainly hear the phenomenon of "prog rock" (main bulk) as painstakingly repetitive and primitive next to, say, a baroque fugue or modal improvisations in avant-garde jazz.

[Klonk]

I'm going to try to give post rock another try - it's eluded me so far. As a person who loves lush melodies, post rock's lack of them has put me in the category of people who find the music not exactly boring, but someone annoyingly repetitive. I just haven't listened enough to even be able to tell the difference between one band and the next.

I'd like to suggest the band Caspian. I find a good chunk of post rock annoyingly repetitive also, but there are some real solid PR bands out there that keep things interesting. These guys really work for me. Maybe you'll dig it...

[MYSTERIOUS TRAVELLER]

I'd like to suggest the band Caspian.

I enjoyed that!

another Postie I think is really creative and engaging is The Human Factor. Here's a good album by them:

[100423]

I'd like to suggest the band Caspian. I find a good chunk of post rock annoyingly repetitive also, but there are some real solid PR bands out there that keep things interesting. These guys really work for me. Maybe you'll dig it...

I've seen them at a couple of shows and they are quite good live too.

[interbellum]

Really enjoying WE LOST THE SEA's Departure Songs about people who lost their lives in heroic and unselfish ways. Just some killer instrumental bits and lot of beauty too. No vocals but quite a few samples.

Apparently this album was recently rereleased by Bird's Robe Records , an Australian label that reissues a lot of old(er) albums in this vein.
Just got a promo from this one and it's indeed a quite enjoying album with a thoughtful concept.

[offwithyerhat]

[Bake 2]

The rust and oxidation on this one is gorgeous. Some might say it's more stoner than post rock. I'm just glad to catch a buzz off it. Snagged it after guy at a Progfest vendor stand described it as an instrumental Sabbath/Crimson cross and got reprimanded for it. Genre labels aside, this is just a cool record... like maybe a mutant cousin of Melvins Ozma.

[EdWiser]

https://youtu.be/3GZ2VtNZRe4

Tons of great post rock melody.