From the Mouth of the Sun - Like Shadows In An Empty Cathedral (from Woven Tide)
From the Mouth of the Sun is the new collaboration between Dag Rosenqvist (aka Jasper TX), and composer Aaron Martin. The duo brings together a beautiful blend of minimalist classical themes and subtle yet suffused atmospheric drone. Fans of soundtracks by Peter Broderick or Johann Johannson… or the quieter music of Godspeed You Black Emperor! will find much to like here. Woven Tide is their debut album. Out of the charred embers of dusk Woven Tide emerges with an incandescent glow. Each glimmer cast by the sustained notes of ebony keys, the taut strings of the cello, and the rampant buzz of guitar lights our way, gives us hope, brings us into the dawn of a new day. As From The Mouth of the Sun, the duo act as our torchbearers, scrawling messages along the walls of an elongated cave, toiling through the decayed remnants of fetid matter to create eight illuminating pieces.
Brian Eno - Signals (from Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks)
Brian Eno is a British self proclaimed ‘non-musician’, who has made contributions to the music community as an instrumentalist, composer, record producer, music theorist and singer. He’s commonly regarded as the father of ambient music, although he has worked in many genres and fields of music throughout his career. Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex, England, taking inspiration from minimalist painting. During his time on the art course at the Institute, he also gained experience in playing and making music through teaching sessions held in the adjacent music school. Eno is frequently referred to as one of popular music’s most influential artists.A critic at Allmusic argues that Eno “forever altered the ways in which music is approached, composed, performed, and perceived, and everything from punk to techno to new age bears his unmistakable influence.” He has spread his techniques and theories primarily through his production; his distinctive style affected a number of projects he’s been involved in, including Bowie’s Berlin Trilogy (helping to popularize minimalism) and the albums he produced for Talking Heads (incorporating African music and polyrhythms on Eno’s advice), Devo, and other groups. Eno’s first collaboration with David Byrne, 1981’s My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, pioneered sampling techniques and broke ground by incorporating world music.Eno and Peter Schmidt’s Oblique Strategies have been utilized by many bands, and Eno’s production style has proven influential in several general respects: “his recording techniques have helped change the way that modern musicians – particularly electronic musicians – view the studio. No longer is it just a passive medium through which they communicate their ideas but itself a new instrument with seemingly endless possibilities.”
I tend to think that the term “post rock” is pretentious, the same way whenever someone drops “post-whatever” outside the context of a term paper how it’s almost always lazy and represents an unwillingness to look closer at shifting trend. I considered writing this commentary with a post-modern style framework to illustrate the point, but it turns out I wasn’t smart enough to pull that off. I’m not Mark Z. Danielewski over here.
Anyway, no genre name is ever cool. The monikers of punk, shoegaze, and chillwave, among others, were all originally intended as insults by some snarky writer, and they stuck, much like a nickname is ascribed to you. You don’t choose your nickname unless you have Prince’s PR team.
With all that said, I’m not sure if I know what “post-rock” really is. Does anyone? I have a vague idea, but if I found myself in a situation where I needed to describe the tenets of post-rock to someone from another planet or, like, North Korea, I’m confident I couldn’t accurately summarize this movement in indie rock. I feel like I often resort to that ol’ piece of legalese from Justice Potter Stewart – I know it when I see it. Of course it’s hard to categorize good music, but there seems to be a distinct aesthetic present with the post-rock label. And interestingly, some of what’s generally considered post-rock isn’t really that post- anything. Rather, we assign the post-rock tag to usual approaches regarding established rock composition. As such, the title feels misdirected in many cases.
It’s hard to accurately pinpoint where the term originated, but I’m sure our good friend Simon Reynolds — whom you’ll remember from the last Dreamlab as the appropriator of hauntology into retrofuturistic Anglo electronic music — certainly had something to do with its proliferation. In a May 1994 issue of Wire, Reynolds laid it out: “Post-rock means using rock instrumentation for non-rock purposes, using guitars as facilitators of timbres and textures rather than riffs and power chords.” That’s a decent encapsulation, though you could make the same argument for a few subgenres of psychedelia as well. While this is tacitly understood as post-rock by both critics and fans, it’s not really the determining factor in practice.
To wax historical, the broadly accepted comprehension of post-rock enjoyed three waves of success – its early ’90s origin (think Tortoise), the bands that replicated and/or expanded the movement at the end of the decade (think Do Make Say Think), and the time wherein the punks and metalheads resurged it in a more aggressive fashion toward the middle of the aughts (think Red Sparrows). As far as what many fans and critics consider the originator of post-rock — that award tends to go to the mighty Slint.
Outside of the River City, Slint’s influence unfolds exponentially. Their existence directly influenced much of the Chicago scene through David Grubbs of Gastr Del Sol, and later, the vanguard of post-rock Tortoise. At the same time, the quiet/loud dynamics of Tweez and powerful restraint of Spiderland informed the juggernauts of festival-ready post-rock acts Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Mogwai (though Stuart recently denied this, c’mon dude we all know and love “Like Herod“). If any given band in the ’90s incorporated sonic space with angular song structures, Slint was in their DNA to some extent.
My geography, here in the cradle of civilization for post-rock, is why I began questioning how we define the genre. Slint doesn’t perfectly align with the sensibilities of many of the great ’90s post-rock heavyweights that imbued free jazz and chamber elements within a rock paradigm, especially when considering the manner in which, say, Uncle Tupelo aligned perfectly with the alternative country movement they are often accredited with spawning. Then again, neither does Mogwai, or at least in relation to Reynolds’ distinction of post-rock.
From the Mouth of the Sun - Like Shadows In An Empty Cathedral (from Woven Tide)
From the Mouth of the Sun is the new collaboration between Dag Rosenqvist (aka Jasper TX), and composer Aaron Martin. The duo brings together a beautiful blend of minimalist classical themes and subtle yet suffused atmospheric drone. Fans of soundtracks by Peter Broderick or Johann Johannson… or the quieter music of Godspeed You Black Emperor! will find much to like here. Woven Tide is their debut album. Out of the charred embers of dusk Woven Tide emerges with an incandescent glow. Each glimmer cast by the sustained notes of ebony keys, the taut strings of the cello, and the rampant buzz of guitar lights our way, gives us hope, brings us into the dawn of a new day. As From The Mouth of the Sun, the duo act as our torchbearers, scrawling messages along the walls of an elongated cave, toiling through the decayed remnants of fetid matter to create eight illuminating pieces.
Thom Yorke - Skip Divided (from The Eraser)
Thomas Edward Yorke (born 7 October, 1968 in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, England) is best known as the lead singer of the English alternative rock band Radiohead. He has also recorded as a solo musician. His debut album, The Eraser, debuted July 10th 2006 in the UK and July 11th in the US. Two singles were released from the album, “Harrowdown Hill” and “Analyse”. Yorke formed Atoms for Peace, who toured in 2010 performing the entirety of The Eraser. The rock ‘supergroup’ features Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea, longtime Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich, drummer Joey Waronker, and percussionist Mauro Refosco. A collection of remixes from The Eraser from such electronic luminaries as Burial, Four Tet, Modeselektor, Various Production and Surgeon were released as MP3 files initially in 2007, followed by a series of limited 12” in 2008. These were eventually released on CD as The Eraser Rmxs album. He mainly plays electric guitar, acoustic guitar and piano, but has also played drums and bass guitar (notably during the Kid A and Amnesiac Radiohead sessions).
Squarepusher - Tundra
Tom “Squarepusher” Jenkinson can be broadly described as an electronic musician, though he is perhaps best known for his experimental drum’n’bass with a heavy jazz fusion influence. A skilled bassist and multi-instrumentalist, Jenkinson’s virtuoso playing is a staple of his music and one of the more obvious affiliations with jazz (although his formal arrangements are often as jazz-derived as his playing). His bass style includes Jaco Pastorius-esque melodic fretless playing, high-speed slap bass and intricate chordal work. Born in 1975 (Essex, England), the son of a jazz drummer, Jenkinson grew up listening to greats such as Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, and Art Blakey, plus dub pioneers King Tubby and Augustus Pablo. He played bass and drums in high school but was frustrated by the limitations of playing with other musicians. Introduced to electronic music through experimental electro-techno artists such as LFO and Carl Craig as well as the local rave scene, Jenkinson soon began assembling these disparate influences into an amalgam of post-bop, avant-garde and progressive jazz with breakbeat techno, making heavy use of the Amen break.
Autechre - Teartear (from Amber)
Autechre is an English electronic music group consisting of Rob Brown and Sean Booth, both natives of Rochdale, Greater Manchester. Formed in 1987, the duo are one of the most prominent acts signed with Warp Records, a label known for its pioneering electronic music and through which all Autechre albums have been released. While most associated with IDM, Booth and Brown are ambivalent in relating their sound to established genres. Their music has exhibited a gradual shift in aesthetic throughout their career, from their earlier work with clear roots in techno, electro and hip hop to later albums that are often considered more experimental in nature, featuring complex patterns of rhythm and subdued melodies. Oversteps, their most recent album, was released on February 22nd 2010.
A Silver Mt. Zion - This Gentle Hearts Like Shot Bird’s Fallen (from Born Into Trouble As The Sparks Fly Upward)
A Silver Mt. Zion is a band formed in 1999, in Montreal, Quebec. Originally an off shoot of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, comprising several members of that collective, subsequently more members have been added. To some extent, A Silver Mt. Zion was born out of a desire on the part of the godspeed players to work in a smaller musical ensemble; in effect, to escape some of the constraints that often accompany writing and arranging music democratically with nine musicians. As well, Efrim simply wanted a vehicle to realize some of his own musical ideas that would not necessarily work well within the context of godspeed. A Silver Mt. Zion’s sound is somewhat similar in style and sound to Sigur Ros, Explosions in the Sky, Mogwai, Mono and the mighty GY!BE themselves. Their music, between post-rock and ambient, is creative, spiritual, unique and moving.
Crystal Castles - Not In Love (Feat. Robert Smith)
Crystal Castles are an experimental electronic band from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, consisting of producer Ethan Kath and lyricist and vocalist Alice Glass. Crystal Castles are known for their chaotic live shows and their lo-fi home productions. The duo released many limited EPs between 2006 and 2007, and two eponymous albums in 2008 and 2010 to widespread critical acclaim. Their debut album was included in NME’s “Top 100 Greatest Albums of the Decade” list at #39.
Thom Yorke - Feeling Pulled Apart by Horses
Thomas Edward Yorke (born 7 October, 1968 in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, England) is best known as the lead singer of the English alternative rock band Radiohead. He has also recorded as a solo musician. His debut album, The Eraser, debuted July 10th 2006 in the UK and July 11th in the US. Two singles were released from the album, “Harrowdown Hill” and “Analyse”. Yorke formed Atoms for Peace, who toured in 2010 performing the entirety of The Eraser. The rock ‘supergroup’ features Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea, longtime Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich, drummer Joey Waronker, and percussionist Mauro Refosco. A collection of remixes from The Eraser from such electronic luminaries as Burial, Four Tet, Modeselektor, Various Production and Surgeon were released as MP3 files initially in 2007, followed by a series of limited 12” in 2008. These were eventually released on CD as The Eraser Rmxs album. He mainly plays electric guitar, acoustic guitar and piano, but has also played drums and bass guitar (notably during the Kid A and Amnesiac Radiohead sessions).
Hello. I'm Kevin. I'm French and I currently live in Montreal where I study Business and Environmental Science at Concordia University. You'll find here some of the things that I read and find interesting. 
