POST ROCK/MATH ROCK

1. "God Gets You Back" (6:40) quite a nice song that has a nice little cinematic opening before turning into something that takes us back to about 1990 when bands like Toad The Wet Sprocket, Trashcan Sinatras, The Pale Saints, Lush, Ride, Slowdive, and The Kitchens of Distinction were having their heyday. I can see why many listeners are extolling this as one of their favorite songs from the past year. It is definitely one of my favorites from this (quite unusual) album. (9/10)

2. "Hi Chaos" (5:24) sounds like good ole fashioned Post Rock with a rock construct (ABABCAB) instead of slow-build, cresecendo, dénouement. (8.75/10)

3. "What Kind of Mix is This?" (4:11) an interesting mix of individual instrument sounds that is squeezed into one more ABABCAB construct. (8.75/10)

4. "Fanzine Made Of Flesh" (4:34) some 1980s New Wave in this one makes it sound like late-1970s fledgling New Wave. Pre-New Order New Order (no: not Joy Division; Cure-ish New Order--or perhaps OMD, Modern English, or Echo & The Bunnymen). Kind of cool if this were 1979. (8.875/10)

5. "Pale Vegan Hip Pain" (4:24) this one sounds like classic early 2000s Post Rock from the likes of Mono or Red Sparowes. Decent but rather simple and unsophisticated. (8.75/10)

6. "If You Find this World Bad, You Should See Some of the Others" (7:22) and I thought the previous song was simple and unsophisticated--sounded like early MONO! Little did I know that this was coming next! Really great build up and brain-annihilating crescendo. (Those crashing cymbals are among the loudest I've ever heard.) The long aftermath is a little unusual: a bit like walking around the streets of Hiroshima a year after the bomb. (13.375/15)

7. "18 Volcanoes" (6:18) vocals! And they're pleasant, melodic, and even dream-poppy! Again: not what one might expect from a Post Rock band--more like something from RIDE, SLOWDIVE, or even The Pale Saints. The weird guitar (or synth?) sounds are cool. A top three song for me. (8.875/10)

8. "Hammer Room" (5:16) interchangeable piano and guitar arpeggi are interwoven giving this the feel of something light and upbeat from NORTH SEA RADIO ORCHESTRA or a collaboration between 1970s Brian Eno and early XTC. Or DIF JUZ! Another top three song. (8.875/10)

9. "Lion Rumpus" (3:33) more New Age sounds and melodies driving this one despite the weird industrial screeches and gratings renting the sonic fabric in the second half. (8.75/10)

10. "Fact Boy" (7:02) floaty cutesie stuff meandering around the sonic field while a Crimsoninan Gamelan-like mathematical weave propels the cart along the ribbon of undulating highway. Nice but not enough to make me want to come back. (13.25/15)

Total Time 54:44

While I do love Mogwai's contributions to film and television soundtracks, I do not find the music of this album particularly compelling, innovative, cinematic, or impressive. It's just simpler, more accessible, more melodic, instrumental Post Rock music. A little too down and depressing for me and my tastes--and too diluted and simplistic.

B/four stars; a nice addition of nostalgic New-Wave-oriented Post Rock but by no means a step forward for the sub- genre.

1. "Crispy Skin" (6:19) high-speed rendered keyboard sequence is accompanied by odd industrial incidentals and voices in a very ARCADE FIRE-meets-William Drake/NORTH SEA RADIO ORCHESTRA--a theme that plays out as the song coagulates and moves forward. Ollie's voice sounds like a cross between the sarcasm of IT'S IMMATERIAL's John Campbell and the feigned boredom of MORRISSEY or RODDY FRAME. Overall the song is innocuous yet dangerously hypnotic. There is genius in these sound waves! (9.25/10)

2. "Building 650" (3:51) this one sounds like an XTC - WIN BUTLER/AIRTO LINDSAY/DAVID BYRNE collaboration though the heavily-percussive orientation of the opening song continues in the musical instrument construction and performances. After 90 seconds of straightforward hypnotherapy the band and music suddenly switch directions: using a Radiohead-like sound palette to bridge into a more lively, truly XTC-like motif. Brilliant song composition though I find Ollie's performance in the second half to be the detractor while in the first half it was the positive. (9/10)

3. "Blood on the Boulders" (5:46) now this is a soundscape that MARK HOLLIS would feel right at home with. The use of additional vocalists (including female!) in the chorus adds an odd twist--especially since Ollie is singing about the unfortunate demise and death of a drugged-up young woman out in nature. In a style that Kavus Torabi would be proud of, the band ramps things up into a more punk rock drive-it-home-until-they-puke-and-collapse-to-the-ground style of music for the mid-section before returning to the previous despondent Paris, Texas desert sound for the finish. Michael Gira would love this one! (8.875/10)

4. "Fieldworks I" (2:23) now they're channeling Damon Waitkus (JACK O' THE CLOCK)! I love the chaos of the strings of the Ruisi Quartet swirling beneath Ollie's narration! (4.75/5) 5. "Fieldworks II" (3:19) the JACK O' THE CLOCK (and a bit of NORTH SEA RADIO ORCHESTRA) similarities continue--even going so far as incorporating lots of folk instrumentation, microtonals, and chaotic string arrangements all woven together. The finish reminds me of the music of GRAVENHURST's late great singer-songwriter Nichola John Talbot. (9/10)

6. "Cro-Magnon Man" (4:07) Blur, Lou Reed, David Byrne, Tom Tom Club, The Ambitious Lovers, Prince, Gang of Four--these are the bands that come easily to mind as I listen to this delightful blend of so many sounds, styles, and songs--a real blast of the past. I tell you: there is genius flowing through this band's collective mind! (9/10)

7. "Cowards" (5:51) Chaotic droning, "silently-screaming" strings. Flugelhorn and keyboard special effects. Gently picked acoustic guitar. Ollie's gentle, sleepy vocal. Gentle percussion. At 2:25 the band kicks into a horn- and vocalese-supported four-chord vamp over which Ollie sings with more vim and insistence in his intentionally-monotone voice. Great arrangement for this weave! (9/10)

8. "Showtime!" (5:08) so hard to classify and describe this Lou Reed Ambitious Lovers-like song. When drums and guitar really take over in the second half I'm suddenly reminded of the stark similarity to the music and vocal stylings of SWANS. (9/10)

9. "Well Met (Fingers Through the Fence)" (8:15) sounds like acoustic Discipline-era King Crimson with David Torn, Mark Isham, and Ryuichi Sakamoto and on board for the vocals along with Ollie's best Michael Gera or Luka Bloom impression. The finished product wouldn't have surprised me if you told me it was something by Mark Hollis. (17.75/20)

Total Time 44:59

Drummer Ollie Judge is back to his theatric, pretentious, punk poetry reading vocals as he was on O Monolith and Bright Green Field (more the latter than the former). The odd yet creative music beneath his crooning complaining is odd enough to remind me of a blend of GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR with LOU REED, Michael Giro's SWANS, and Airto Lindsay's AMBITIOUS LOVERS. I really love the refreshing new ozonegen being injected into the blood of Old Man Prog by these creative young upstarts! I love the unusual use of strings for the creation of a constant underlying chaos and confusion: this is the part that reminds me of GY!BE.

A-/five stars; a minor masterpiece of refreshing and highly-creative eclectic song presentations that, for me, help invigorate the rumour that a "prog punk" element is growing, thriving on the fringes of the progressive rock dinosaur (like a symbiotic swarm of flies, moss, or remora). Really essential . . . for the health and longevity of a living prog.

Even if this is almost all instrumental, this is so theatrical and cinematic, it's just like how you wouldn't want a great movie to be spoiled. The vocal samples and the short bit of singing on the final track add to the album, but this story is told almost entirely through instrumentals. If I had to describe it, I would say "87 minutes of monolithic doomsday post-rock?". This is the most film-like record I have ever heard, and again, despite it being nearly all instrumental, I really get the vision of this apocalyptic world they try to portray, and the emotions they convey, with huge senses of dread and helplessness, with also triumphant highs. Alright, now that you all have listened to the album without spoilers, it is time to talk about my top 4 favorite tracks off of Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven.

This whole album is comprised of simply 4 tracks, all in the 19 to 23 minute range, but they are all filled with multiple movements, (which are very hard to follow with the guideline that comes with my physical copy). The beginning of the opener, "Storm" is the title movement. If Godspeed's reputation of making music for the end of the world is true, then this section is a pre-apocalyptic time, before the Earth went to Hell, because the first approximate 6 minutes is an uplifting flurry of strings and guitars, that is gorgeously layered, and then even more so once the triumphant brass is added in. This ends in an explosion of instruments, and all that is left in the fallout is the violin, faintly droning away in the background. This very smoothly transitions into the "Gathering Storm" segment, where over the wailing violins, the electric guitar performs a cover of the tradition hymn of "Amazing Grace". This song has been covered a million times, but this is unlike any other version, because this will be the darkest and most dissonant version you will hear. This closes on a discordant ends, before passages of sound collages and vocal samples appear. If the end of days haven't started yet, this is certainly where the beginning of the end starts. The samples are further evidence of this too, the first being recorded from a market owned by an ARCO gas station, which could be a critique on the power owned by America's oil industry, and then chanting can be heard from what appears to be a military general, indicating a potential doomsday war, and the whole track finishes with his voice becoming slowly more distorted and indistinguishable.

"Static" has a glooming, mysterious start, compared to the "Storm", with its haunting ambience, and after a short series of soundscapes and shrills, a sample of a preacher plays, which is an incredibly eerie moment. Her voice was pitched down, making it sound like that of a man, while the strings surrounding her sound like they are crying. Her preaching is initially like your typical Evangelical sermonizing, but things then get even more uneasy when she starts yelling about a revelation she's had, and how she knows what isn't even in the Bibles yet. As her voice fades out, the strings remain and transition into the "The World Police and Friendly Fire" movement. They transform into a slow building, densely textured choir of strings, with this weeping guitar lead, that continues until the more traditional rock inspired bass enters. This becomes one of the most intense moments on the record, when all of the instruments start to slowly pick up the speed and the volume. Just when it reaches its full speed, the track reaches its climax, as the tempo drops, and the guitar screams away. At this point, the track lives up to its title, and I don't know how they manage to get the noises they manage to create out of this single guitar. It's hard to describe the exact sounds at this part, but I would encourage anyone to listen to this movement if you were going to choose any on the album.

"Sleep" is the third track, which kicks off the second disc, and it begins with the audio of an elderly man rambling on about Coney Island. This clip is meme'd to death by the Godspeed fanbase, but it is actually a depressing segment of sorts. He is reminiscing about his past, when he used to sleep on the beach as a child, but Coney Island was never the same after WWII, and he is disappointed that no one else will get to have the same experience. The final line of "They don't do that anymore. Things changed, you see. They don't sleep anymore on the beach..." is such a depressing moment and the music to follow is equally as sad. The guitar is strumming these eerie minor chords, with only a few bass hits, and more and more layers of instrumentation is added on top over the track's 23 minutes. It reaches as a small crescendo as the drums enter with a cymbal hit, and the guitar is playing this haunting, ghostly lead melody. Something I love about Godspeed is captured especially well on this track, and that is their ability to always come back with an even bigger crescendo once you think you reached the song's peak. This happens countless times in this track alone, and they still manage to surprise me with every listen. After numerous climaxes, they reels things back in with the "Broken Windows, Locks of Love Pt. III" portion, but this still has larger than life crescendos, especially when the trumpets and drums enter, and it sounds hopeful and triumphant, despite the feeling of loss and grief in its first half.

The only account of signing to appear on the LP begins the closer, "Like Antennas to Heaven...", which features then ex-guitarist, Mike Moya singing the nursery rhyme of "Baby-O", over a bare acoustic guitar. The lyrics of giving the baby a bottle of gin, and sticking a finger in the baby's eye, is very unsettling, which continues on the ambient section of sound collage and chimes, before the voices of Quebecois children singing can be heard. It's an off-putting and unassuming start to the track, but this transforms into what is likely the loudest and most unpredictable crescendo on the album, where it seems like things are fading out, but wailing harmonized guitars come out of nowhere, with surprisingly beautiful results. I love the drone that progresses from this point, not only because of the guitars and the drums added in around the 10 minute mark, but to me, this is the perfect way to finish off the album. The drone has that sad sense of despair I was referencing on earlier tracks, but it ends on an ever so slightly uplifting notes. I don't know if this was intentional or not, but it sounds like Godspeed is saying that even if the world sucks, maybe there's a chance for a little bit of hope going forward. This could be completely wrong, but that's just the way this read to me, just like any previous analysis I've mentioned for this record.

It is impossible for me to go over every single detail, because Lift Your Skinny Fists is so dense with musical ideas across its 4 tracks, I wouldn't be able to write about them all. 5.0 I enjoy ambience at times

"The Gathering", the opening track, leads the listener into a sonic immersion that begins atmospherically. The trio starts with an ethereal approach, marked by a slow rhythm and spaced notes. As the piece unfolds, the calmness gives way to an explosion of energy, with a powerful, pulsating rhythmic section while the guitar lines evolve with intensity and touches of sophistication. The layers intertwine seamlessly, resulting in an emotionally engaging composition that exemplifies the band's ability to transition between delicacy and strength.

"Whispers & Lullabies" begins more directly compared to the previous track, immediately delivering a captivating harmony from the first chords. Guitar, bass, and drums intertwine to build a castle of musicality, with each instrument contributing rich, well-defined textures. The track moves between reflective passages and intense instrumental attacks. Among these layers, a hint of psychedelia emerges at one point, all sounding remarkably coherent. This track further reinforces the trio's ability to explore different atmospheres with great fluidity.

"Light From the Dark" opens with a climactic soundscape guided by slow guitar notes that create a mood of apprehension and anticipation. Gradually, the bass and drums join in, steering the piece toward a more pulsating direction while retaining melody and delicacy. Within this setting, a guitar solo emerges?initially subtle and serene but quickly gaining intensity. Following this instrumental burst, the music retreats into a quieter moment only to surprise with a complete rhythmic shift. This new segment is introduced by a brief, striking bass solo, setting the stage for the composition's final theme?a closing section that unveils one of the album's most beautiful and emotionally stirring harmonies.

"Echoes of the Union" starts peacefully before giving way to one of the album's heaviest and most intense sections. Here, the drums and bass stand out with a powerful, pulsating sound, establishing a robust rhythmic foundation that propels the piece into denser territory. As the track progresses, a tempo change transforms the mood. The guitar adopts a more psychedelic and spatial character, floating above a traveling rhythmic section. However, this ethereal atmosphere doesn't last until the end; as the track nears its conclusion, the initial intensity returns with force.

"Revival", the closing and longest track on the album, surpasses the 21-minute mark and unfolds as a true musical journey filled with nuances and surprises. It opens with delicate guitar arpeggios accompanied by distant-sounding drums. Gradually, the bass subtly joins, setting the stage for a sonic explosion as the band erupts with brilliant energy. For a brief moment, the composition plunges into another of the album's heaviest segments, once again showcasing the trio's versatility before returning to the serene pace of the opening.

Throughout its extensive duration, the track explores an impressive range of atmospheres?psychedelic and spatial sections create hypnotic soundscapes, darker musical passages evoke introspection, and vibrant segments radiate vitality. The guitar navigates between technical solos and emotionally charged passages, while the rhythm section consistently delivers excellence, providing a solid, dynamic, and striking foundation at every new turn. As the track approaches its end, the heaviness returns with vigor, this time rooted in a swinging groove that concludes the piece by encapsulating the album's musical diversity and richness.

We Are The Leavers was a pleasant surprise?an album that is both highly creative and well-balanced. Full of well- directed and cohesive sonic variations, the record exhibits remarkable cohesion, with each track seeming aware of its origin and destination. The transitions between ethereal atmospheres, heavy passages, and psychedelic moments are carried out naturally and purposefully. This work showcases not only the trio's refined technique but also their sensitivity in crafting a cohesive and emotional musical narrative.

This is some "way out there" stuff! My own attempt to describe this may fall short, but I'm gonna give it a try. You might call Clessidra modern psych jams celebrating life itself, with world music flavors, experimental and nonlinear songwriting, electronica, and environmental intrusions. This is way more daring and more unusual than most post-rock I've heard, in a good way. It could have a hallucinatory effect on you if practice some active (undistracted) listening. I would suggest this is a great title to explore in bed, in the dark, and with headphones. Enjoy the cicadas and the other strange creatures of nature who introduce each song. At times, Clessidra recall a more electric version of Third Ear Band or Japan's Ghost, but such comparisons may not serve any of them fairly as all three bands are clearly unique.

Tuscany's Manza Nera Label seems to have stalled out during Covid. Hopefully they will return one day because their offerings are pretty damn cool. They describe their lineup of artists as follows: "our aim is to explore all the avant-garde sounds of the new millennium. From electronic music to post-rock, from stoner to noise, from experimental tape to jazz." Clessidra is an experimental sounds band from Quiesa, Italy, and they formed in 2009. Carta Malabarica is their excellent studio release from 2013. Per the band's liner notes, "Carta Malabarica is a title that evokes the Orient, geographical maps and notebooks of the first explorers of the globe. The album contains our passion for that mysterious exoticism, literary and geographical, exercised on us by real places wrapped in a certain legendary aura such as Tunguska, the Malabar region in India, Giza, Baghdad, Gobleki Tepe." Something of a musical travelogue.

Their style may begin with what feels like typical post-rock, but it is a livelier improvisation with higher, much more vibrant aspirations, I would say. And while it is a freeform style with plenty of room for improvisation, the pieces tie back into themselves in a very cohesive way. Some parts are more overtly formless while other sections see the guys drop into a clear groove and run with it, getting into jam band, psych-rock territory, but staying in no one mode for too long. Remember watching nature shows where they would show you a volcanic eruption and they would hold the camera on these bright orange molten pools of lava bubbling and spitting? "Tunguska part 2" would be the absolute perfect soundtrack to lay over such footage. Both it and "Ek balam" sound as if influenced by late '60s Floyd's most psych moments.

And I think it is these rather abrupt shifts between the (seemingly) formless sound and the more intentional rock components that make things so exciting. You never know where they're going next! But you do realize quite quickly that this is not the too-oft typical post-rock that latches onto one melancholic progression and rides it for an hour. While such single-mode ebb-flow can be great at times, this is a different landscape altogether, one that melds the worlds of trance, dance, and wonder perfectly---an expression of life and the places that inspire mankind. The overall result is a work of great beauty and imagination, equal parts restless and relaxing and intriguing. That band doesn't seem to have any recent activity, but we can hope that the celebration isn't over yet. Recommended. Note: Elisa Cortopassi deserves a special shout-out for the beautiful design of the CD packaging.

Debut album saw the light in september 2024 after releasing an EP in 2020, named Gyddanyzc. Well, worth to have this release because everything you will hear is damn well played from start to fisnish. Complex passages, all albums is instrumental, but that is not a problem every pieces is a winner for sure.

Personally I admire Aleksandra Ciecierska type of playing the guitar, very solid from start to finish, imagine a King Crimson type guitar wizardry in a jazz fusion coat, well worth your attention. Just to be checked the splendid and aI mean super splendid piece named Wiosenny, god damn that is a brilliant tune, so well constructed, my fav from the album. The keyboards are only as supportive instrument, there are no fast solos, but when this instrument is integrated in overall sound the atmosphere created is more then ok.

And this manner of playing is on all tracks, complicated rhythms, syncopated parts in a very progressive rock atmosphere.

I must add that also the other two musicans involved done a great job for sure, the bass is omni present and full of funky stuff and integrated very well with the drummer who is competent musician.

So, overall , in my opinion better then thier EP, this debut Gyddanyzc is a fine instrumental effort. Recommended 3.5 stars easy.

Hearing this tragically overlooked full-length debut (overlooked here, anyway), the first connections my brain foisted on me were the feisty Italian group Ske and the formidable American rock band The Tea Club. More on those associations later. The unusually named Bill In The Tea are a collective of gents from Sicily who, according to their own bio, are pursuing a "heavily mathematical prog rock from late seventies but eventually evolves into a smoother and plainer musical architecture, strongly influenced by post-rock and neo-psychedelia, with a clear reference to bossa nova, blues and jazz music." Their impressive full-length debut Big Tree was released in Summer 2013, and it blew me away.

Bill in the Tea has released herein a remarkable collection of innovative, adventurous progressive rock tracks featuring challenging chords and complex, fusion-styled jams, the spirit of which reminded me of Ske's first album, 1000 Autunni, although Bill uses more guitar and has less exotic classical instrument support. At the same time, like The Tea Club, Bill brings the complex aspirations of every song back to the realm of appealing melodies, where the songs not only dazzle you but are willing to be assimilated with ease. Yes, it cooks and it dazzles, but it's never impenetrable. This is not snob-rock. This music wants to be loved, wants to engage. Cerebral need not be stuffy.

And I adore the sound palette they paint with here. So much beauty. Right out the gate, an Oceansize-type, math-ish burst followed by plaintive clean guitar chords and long key notes that make one feel lost. Suddenly violin enters. Soft jazzy guitar. Violin and piano together. No one does this vibe as well as the Italians and yet this not typical RPI of the symphonic vein. This is a younger and more contemporary approach, more eclectic, maybe post-rock influenced. Vocals arrive in the second track. The band is more instrumental than vocal-based, but when the vocals are present they remind me of The Tea Club yet again. The third track employs some electronica with recorded spoken-word dialogue. Back to really hot jamming with the aptly titled "I Wanna Be Frank Zappa." The album gets stronger as it goes on with the second half being my favorite stuff, long jams loaded with emotion and color.

I truly hope that we have not heard the last of this band. It's over a decade now with no follow-up album, and this is too good to not be followed up. I really want to hear where they go next. They offer a delightful mixture of the cerebral and the dreamy. They can rock but they also drift along like a summer breeze, a mixture of feelings and emotions not easy to articulate. Bravo!

6. Hollywood Babylon with the dull, metronomic attack, a still new-wave air filled with spleen with a sound of the SIMPLE MINDS 1st wave; be careful the variation with the roaring percussions brings this little more progressive; but the synth tune is beautiful with Stian's melting guitar 7. The Red Light for the consensual title, it needed one it's there, redundant, binary, not bad, jerky especially worth it for its southern crooner finale and a melting keyboard solo, often melting here 8. Nocturne #2 and the 2nd act on a synthetic percussion, an ambient riff tune, cinematic post rock with sound that Peter GABRIEL could have created without a doubt; the metronomic side quickly becoming hypnotic, mantranic 9. Helian (Trakl) arrives, finally, latency of the sound typed, heavy, weighty, to help go further; strangely the vocal à la LACRIMOSA, EINSTURZENDE NEUBATEN, RAMMSTEIN in dark wave, phrasing, can block the listener; the evolution is slow, vibration accompanied by an Arabizing choir in the distance; the final sax comes to tear the stirrups in the ears in a jazzy trance way; to meditate, contemplate, clash.

The soundscapes are very oppressive, with heavy droning and noise being poured down on the listener. This oppression is occasionally broken by more light tracks like "The Daugther brings the water", letting the listener recover for the next noise barrage. The soundscapes themselves are varied with their instruments, and at points more experimental sound sources get blended into the mix, like fire crackle or breathing.

Thematically The Seer can be summarized by the following; "Hatred of God". It's a bit more nuanced than that, but when boiled down it's the same old theme present in earlier Swans albums. This time the reflection is that humans are ravaging and defiling the earth with no remorse or care, and god is despicable for bringing such creatures into the world and letting them roam free. The Seer character is brought into a doomed world, despairs, and becomes an apostate that curses God.

The Seer is a very dear record for me. Even as it is filled spite and hatred for the world, I see it as an starting point for spiritual healing, and re-discovering the joys of life. This has mainly to do with the interviews Michael Gira has given after the album's release and the following live tour, as he seemed more optimistic after it. The Swans material following The Seer is also more light in comparison to it, not by much, but its noticeable. It's this contrast with the rest of the discography that makes me appreciate The Seer as much as I do, it's hate being a spiritual cleansing that prepares both the artist and the listener for a new, more honest begining.