HURMOS

Ever since Norwegian group 1099 hooked me with their sax-infused crescendocore, jazzy post-rock has been a bit of a favourite microgenre for me, and Virta are definitely the best exponents of it that I've found since then. This is fairly within the lines of third-wave post-rock - emotional chord progressions, big tremolo-picked leads, intense drum performances and a general sense of good-but-predictable. What raises this above good and into great is not only the jazz, but the influence from electronic and ambient music. The jazz here is more Amon Tobin or Flying Lotus than it is John Coltrane, particularly with the skittery percussion on a few tracks. There's a jazziness to the post-rock melodies too, which is something that always stood out about 1099 as well - it feels like many of the lines are born from a jazz perspective but played with rock instruments, as there's a much clearer melodic sense to some of these leads. This is definitely one of my favourite recent instrumental albums, within genre or not, and is further proof that adding saxophone always yields better results.

8.0 (6th listen)

Part of my listening diary from my facebook blog: www.facebook.com/TheExoskeletalJunction

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