IT'S NOT ME, IT'S YOU

Pg.Lost is a four piece post rock band hailing from one of the most musically fascinating places on the planet: Sweden. This is the country giving us the Prog giants Opeth, Pain of Salvation, and the Flower kings (surprisingly enough, I don't really listen to any of them to much), not too mention the sheer number of extreme, folk, and experimental metal bands, including one of my all time favorites Cult of Luna. The strange thing about this country though, is their surprising lack of post rock bands, besides September Malevolence, pg. Lost is almost alone in this country of great underground music.

Regardless of how surrounded they are by post rock bands, this group knows the formula, and they know it well. The music is very derivative of bands like Mogwai, with build up's, then break downs to a barely audible guitar, then everything will jump back just as soon as you drop into a gaze. They also know how to put the pretty element into it, their songs are beautifully textured and delicate, the recording quality is crisp and clear, and everything is mixed right, making this album a big gamble for the band if they were to make any dull music at all. Well, it payed off, the music is captivating, the guitars creating layer upon layer of rhythmic riffs with they're delay pedals, while a twinkling piano may be anchoring everything down in the background from drowning in delay. The best representation of this band is through the opening and closing songs of the album. The day shift starts very noisy, w=feedback, slowly diving way to a structured song, to break down, and then burst into an incredibly loud climax with distorted delay, and shoegazey vocals. Siren is more typical post rock, but with that being said, one of the very best post rock songs I have ever heard, that puts all other post rock songs into perspective. Mogwai has Fear Satan, Eits has Your hand in Mine, The Evpatoria Report has Tajin Kyofusho, and pg.lost has Siren. A twelve minute trip into some of the most blissful music you will ever hear, guitars bounce off each other as the wall gets louder and louder, hushed vocals come in, go out, then come in an octave higher, by this point you feel weightless, and afterwords, a very metallic climax comes, and exhausts the next three or so minuetes of the song. Best closer I have yet to hear in a while.

While a great album, I feel this band has a lot of growing to do, yeah the first song or two, and the last two, Jonathan and Siren are solid, but if you were to play me some of the songs in the middle of the album, I probably wouldn't be able to tell who was playing it considering how typical the music is to standard post rock. That being said, yes this band does play pretty post rock for the sake of pretty post rock, so I wouldn't recommend this to anyone looking for something off the grind, cause I can guarantee disappointment for them, and a two star review for this album. Good thing I can find a lot of enjoyment out of this kind of music, because this is one of the most solid of the year.

4 Stars