Are you basically a jazz band? No, I mean we don’t really look at it like that. It’s more feeling with sounds, playing with sounds. We love jazz music and all of us have a background that involves jazz. We just take normal sounds and freak them out. – Tortoise Interview [1]
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Various postrock albums list. I start with canonical albums first.
notes: Experimental music is any music that challenges the commonly accepted notions of what music is. There is an overlap with avant-garde music. John Cage was a pioneer in experimental music and defined and gave credibility to the form. As with other edge forms that push the limits of a particular form of expression, there is little agreement as to the boundaries of experimental music, even amongst its practitioners. On the one hand, some experimental music is an extension of traditional music, adding unconventional instruments, modifications to instruments, noises, and other novelties to orchestral compositions. At the other extreme, there are performances that most listeners would not characterize as music at all.
The term post-rock was coined by Simon Reynolds in issue 123 of The Wire (May 1994) to describe a sort of music “using rock instrumentation for non-rock purposes, using guitars as facilitators of timbres and textures rather than riffs and powerchords.”
Originally used to describe the music of such bands as Stereolab, Disco Inferno, Seefeel, Bark Psychosis and Pram, it spread out to be frequently used for all sorts of jazz- and Krautrock-influenced, instrumental, electronica-added music made after 1994. Bands from the early 1990s such as Slint, or earlier, such as Talk Talk were influential on this genre. As with many musical genres, the term is arguably inadequate: it is used for the music of Tortoise as well as that of Mogwai, two bands who have very little in common besides the fact that their music is largely instrumental. [from progarchive]
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Talk Talk – Ascension Day
Laughing Stock (Umgd, 1991)
Although not considered post-rock, jazz/krautrock groups in the early nineties is the progenitor of post-rock sound, originator of many post-rock project in term of structure and texture. Talk Talk maybe one of the more representative. The postrock sound and feel are scattered all over their work. Another favorite example is ‘Future Days‘, an album by Can.
Slint - Washer
Spiderland (Touch & Go Records, 1991)
Probably the most influential postrock album, credited for introducing the form, earning Steve Albini‘s rave. “Spiderland is a majestic album, sublime and strange, made more brilliant by its simplicity and quiet grace. Songs evolve and expand from simple statements that are inverted and truncated in a manner that seems spontaneous, but is so pricise and emphatic that it must be intuitive or orchestrated or both.” [2] [wiki]
Labradford - G
Mi Media Naranja (Kranky, 1997)
Is this the minimalist sound that Brian Eno is chasing? Hard to tell, this band from Richmond release several albums in the late 90′s in almost pure texture. An ambitious project for an era filled with hardrock/grunge scene. The significance of this band probably is as a raw material for Matmos, that visionary electro avant-garde duo. [more at brainwashed]
Tortoise - TNT
TNT (Thrill Jockey, 1998)
The album that probably most recognized as postrock sound. With background structure of minimalist avant-garde and jazz, Tortoise created scattered rock riff on top of big guitar texture with complex drum on the background. It is neither jazz, nor prog-rock. Too loud for experimental electro ambient and doesn’t have popular hook for radio. The use of computer is certainly consider sacrilege by many rock purist. And yet this album is the official ambient soundtrack for rock nerd of the world. [more at wiki]
Godspeed You! Black Emperor – The Dead Flag Blues
f#a# (infinity symbol) (Kranky, 1998)
This band spans the entire golden age of postrock sound. Started in 1994 and announcing indefinite hiatus in 2003, Montreal’s Goodpseed is famous for ambitiously large sound. For eg. their two discs “Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven” album are filled with viola, violin, and of course “words” the one that makes them different. They were detained in Oklahoma after a gas station attendant suspect them as radicals. There is a sign of time for you. [wiki]
Explosions In the Sky – Yasmin the Light
Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live Forever (Temporary Residence, 2001)
The Goodspeed Texas counterpart. This album was release in September 2001. Cinematic, clean, punctuated with large wave of electric storm, it is a requiem for postrock hope. That there is larger experiment in sound which can enlighten. It is a morality play in 6 minutes rock piece. Explosion in the sky probably has the most public friendly sound between the cannonical list due to their strick bass, guitar, drum sound. [wiki]
The Mercury Program – Egypt
Data Learn Language (Tiger Style, 2002)
A highly underrated group from Gainesville Florida with unusual instrument: xylophone. I like their balance composition, a cross road between various styles punctuated by a reminder that their work is rock. This track probably sums up my idea of what elegant music is about. Undefined, minimalist, well executed, texture and balance. [wiki]
see also: The Wire
image: Emmr
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