Oiseaux-Tempête: experimental post-rock...

From their album AL-'AN ! - Baalshamin:

^ Thanks. I understand. Somehow, my impression with this band so far is that the whole (the album) is better than its parts. Difficult to single out one or two tracks when there is more variety and a good flow in the whole album (Voodoo Spinning, that I put up in the last IA-poll comes from the same album as these first two tracks). I think AL-'AN ! might be my preferred album up till now, but the others are not far anyway.

A couple more, and maybe more minimalist/jazzy, this time: The studio version of this track came out on their second album, Ütopiya?, but I present here an intimate and more elaborate (in time) live version.

Ütopiya / On Living (feat. G.W. Sok and Gareth Davis):

And the opening - studio - track of that same album, Omen: Divided We Fall:

^ Yes, this is not much a band of instrumental virtuosity, especially not in the drum department (no Bruford equivalents here). I think the virtuosity is more in the soundscaping, sound design and creating atmospheric music with a rock instrumentation (which is not necessarily to each and everyone's liking, of course).

Here a track from there album From Somewhere Invisible (2019): We, Who Are Strewn About in Fragments

A few years ago, a band from the East Coast had a piece of music and I listened to it, and then sent a private message as a review. I didn't want to say it publicly. 

The piece was wide open improvisation in the SF style, and it had some far out moments, which were all killed by a really poor drummer that would punch the snare drum really hard, when the music was starting to trip off, and he didn't know how to color it without making sure the band got back on the beat he could keep up with. It was really sad, because if you took the drummer out completely, the piece would have been considered far out and neat. But it was obvious that one member was either too young, or simply had not learnt tp LISTEN and then make drumming adjustments ... I'm not sure he knew what to do with his drums beyond the 4/4 thing and his hitting the snare harder to break the mood of the piece ... 

It was sad.

In this example, it wasn't that bad, because it added a different touch, however, the music had a lot less to do with the "beat" and the "blues" and the drummer's only knowing how to do one thing. I'm not sure that they defined that well enough, which could have resulted in a stronger effort all around.

As is the case, with folks like Damo Suzuki, the MUSIC HAS TO SING, and no bass is needed, and in this case, if the music was well defined, they could have sat down and help the drummer get better refined, instead of just doing the same thing over and over again, and preventing the music from flying much further than it did.

In my book, all instruments have to help ... but seeing something that is creating a separate/different feeling for the rest of the musicians is weird. AND, it takes it away from the "progressive" ideal, since all of a sudden it is not as advanced and designed as it could have been in a conceptual world. But if that is all the band offers ... so be it!