OH! THEE GLORY DAYS OF IGNORANCE

KOMAS MIDA is one of those chill post-rock groups emerging from the central Swedish city of Östersund. This band is known to be a five-piece and has released two albums which include the self-titled debut of 2008 and this following 2011 release OH! THEE GLORY DAYS OF IGNORANCE.

Somewhat mysterious as little info exists, the band formed in 2004 and consists of Erik For (guitar), Idan Cheaproot (drums), Mikael Junchag (guitar), Alexander Landström (guitar, keyboards) and Daniel Björk (bass). Finding a decent biography on this band seems all but impossible so we'll just have to call them them the Northern Keepers of the Post-Rock Paradigm!

The band's scarcity becomes more clear when listening to OH! THEE GLORY DAYS OF IGNORANCE. Despite excellent performances that release beautiful emotive displays of chamber orchestra style post-rock with occasional distortion flare ups the band very much comes across in the same style as bands like Explosions In The Sky with those predicative cyclical loops that nurture a melody and add subtle counterpoints as they precede.

Despite not finding it in the credits, there is a violin and cello on this album which add those beautiful chamber rock elements. OH! THEE GLORY DAYS OF IGNORANCE features seven tracks that add up to just over 50 minutes of playing time and crafts that type of post-rock that is light and airy employing slow tempos, warm guitar tones and conservative percussive accompaniments.

The album is completely instrumental and the production is soft and sensual with a few moments of more upbeat rock moments but they rarely last long and are designed to provide contrast. Unfortunately this album comes off as a bit generic as KOMAS MIDA doesn't really add anything new under the sun to the post-rock universe. If someone were to tell me that this is a long lost Mogwai or Explosions In The Sky album i would have no reason to doubt that.

In the end it seems KOMAS MIDA may have abandoned their project since any info at all is scarce and the only real listening opportunities are on YouTube. This is a very beautiful album for sure but lacks any sort of creative mojo that sets it apart from the myriad post-rock bands that came before. Decently done but exhibits the nagging reminder that we've already been there and done that in some nebulous nook of the post-rock world.