post rock 

Saturday morning, it's cold, gray and somewhat rainy outside. The summer is definitely behind us now. The festival season has come to an end, only to make place for a plethora of indoor events and concerts. I'm not sure about how many I will attend. Even my summer was rather calm in that aspect. But there is one festival that will always have my full attention. Tucked away in the lovely Flemish Ardennes lives Dunk! Festival. I am sure that the gang is already working on their 2020 edition and I wouldn't be surprised if Czech horde Flash The Readies will be on the line-up again. I wouldn't mind either. I'm sure that it will be another astonishing bill, but you can read my careful predictions in another article soon.

For now I'd like to focus on 'Duna', their fifth album already. Flash The Readies have been evolving since the very beginning, from alternative rock to instrumental rock, heading into the post-scene with an immersive and somewhat psychedelic sound. 'Duna' is the follow-up to their highly acclaimed 2016 full-length 'Kayos'. The album contains five tracks, 'New Order' being the shortest piece, merely three minutes long but full of rage and intensity. It does feel like the apotheosis for the mesmerizing opener 'White Flags, Pt 1', which is a near-perfect post-rock tune, one I can already hear floating over Zottegem.

'Quiet Quiet' is pretty much self-explanatory, at least for a while. With Pink Floyd meets Aidan Baker drones and guitars, this tune digs right into the ambient scene. But even then, do not expect an easy ambient tune, these scapes are relentless, pulsating and impending. They serve as the perfect intro for 'White Flags, Pt 2', my personal favorite on this record and a genre defining post rock tune. You simply can't go wrong with Flash The Readies. In their 13 years of existence, these Czechs have become a force to be reckoned with, delivering high quality music.

The album ends with 'The Return Of Obodin'. Clocking off at 14.43, this is the longest track on 'Duna' and - as most classics in this genre - is a massive statement of the narrative nature of post rock. Once again this track has an elaborate story to tell, using soundscapes, drums and lingering guitars to guide the listener. In fact, perhaps this is my favorite track here. I'm not sure. This is just one of those albums that show how beautiful this music can be and how much a band can grow. I think post rock fans can easily trust Flash The Readies to deliver the goods. 'Duna' is a fantastic album, one that certainly deserves a place in your already huge collection.


​Serge

post rock / folk

You might think that in these days of musical abundance, the post rock genre could no longer produce anything refreshing and unique, right? Well, probably. I mean, if bands experiment much further they would eventually become another genre. But, then again, sometimes something fascinating appears. 

Hailing from Norway, Monograf blends post rock with traditional folk music, something I've previously heard black metal bands do. The result is an album that needs to grow on you, needs time to be explored and absorbed completely. But once you take the time to do that, you'll be in love.

The album opens with 'Grails', an elaborate post rock tune featuring a plethora of instruments. In that aspect, the music somewhat reminds me of Wang Wen, in the sense that both bands take their time to narrate and compose brilliant pieces of music. Another band that comes to mind is Sigur Ros, mainly because of the vocal aspects. That's probably another thing that sets Monograf apart from many other bands, the use of voices. Title track 'Nadir' is a song, one that takes you back to ancient times but also fits right on a modern post rock stage.

Yeps, that was a little hint towards our friends from Dunk! festival. In my imagination, I see plenty of post rock bands play on one of those stages because let's face it, Dunk! is that best thing to discover and enjoy this kind of music. But let's be honest, a tune like 'The Golden Calf' with enchant  the entire forest with its fiddles, it's emotive atmosphere and it's unique sound. Check out the video below and judge for yourself, if you like. This music is so well composed that it seems to come from a different time, or place.

Between 'The Golden Calf' and closer 'Horde' a short 'Intermission' appears. This song also takes you back to the Norwegian forests and times long gone. But the absolute magnum opus of this excellent album is 'Horde'. Opening with ambient soundscapes, this think slowly evolves into a sonic adventure, second to none. In all, this album is pretty much uncompareable. Nothing comes close to the elaborate palette of Monograf. I'm sure that this release will gain this band a heap of followers and I'm sure it will lift many people's spirits.


​Serge

drone / ambient / post rock / shoegaze

The Dutch Norwegianism Records label was founded and shaped by Dead Neanderthals duo René Aquarius and Otto Kokke. Both artists couldn’t find the time to continue with the label (lots of music projects). New owner Hans van der Velden is now taking care of the label that is specialized in releasing noise, free- jazz, drone, grindcore, power-electronics and other weird stuff for the masses. Hans van der Velde is also the initiator behind the alternative music event Hans Festival taking place in Diepenheim Holland.

In fact thisquitearmy needs hardly an introduction. Canadian experimental guitarist Eric Quach (thisquietarmy) and Belgian drummer Tom Malmendier joined forces.  Both musicians met at Beauté Soniques festival in Namur (Belgium) for a Hypnodrone Ensemble gig in the fall of 2016. They got fueled by continental travel stories and meetings through the underground scene. Tom Malmendier is a self-taught drummer who is interested in the sound, more than in the pure technique of the instrument. Playing with sounds and to improvise became a great part of his work as a musician.

Steppe is a collaboration of two artists melting their talents and improvisations into a mix of guitar drones and soundscapes submerged  with enormous variations of drumming and percussion. Tom Malmendier ‘s work on this recording shows not only intensive pieces. His percussion also flirts lightly on the surface between the deep drones and effects of wizard Eric Quach. The varied atmospheres combined with the intense drumming make Steppe an interesting and worth listening piece of work. Guitarist Eric Quach shows again that he is a master in creating drones from another dimension. 

Tom Malmendier rattles like a carpenter the guitar drones of Eric Quach into a solid and strong sound construction. The frenzied walls of sound have depth and are filled with the dynamic input of the Belgian drummer. Steppe is a vigorous and unpredictable release with surprising atmospheric vibes. We consider Steppe one of the better co-operations thisquietarmy already did.

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Patsker

post rock / post metal / drone

I've often wondered how bands name themselves, do they put lots of cool sounding words into a hat and pick them out and see what happens? (I'm looking at you, Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard) or do they think long and hard about what type of music the band play and take it from there? Today’s album band falls very much in the later category and may well be one of the most apt band names I've ever heard.

 The Boston natives return with their second full length following their well received previous album 'Though Your Sins Be As Scarlet, They Shall Be White as Snow; Though They be Red Like Crimson, They Shall Be As Wool' Yeah, these guys have a way with words all right.  They play an instrumental style of post-whatever that takes it's time and sounds like an unrelenting force of nature (hence the apt band name). 

 Lead off single 'O World! I Remain No Longer Here' starts off with an ominous sounding drone and slowly ratchets up the tension until just the right moment and a torrent of exciting sludge is released. It takes a long time to unfurl it's full might but once it get there the fury is exhilarating. There is an unusual amount of thought which seems to have gone into this record, each note sounds like it was put there on purpose with no excess whatsoever.

 Next up we have the brilliantly titled song (In truth, all the songs are magnificently named) 'The Bugles Blow Fanned by Hysteria' which starts of with a gentle drum beat, before adding textures of guitar, bass and atmospherics until the song dissolves into a gorgeous bass refrain and picks up once again. Once more, this song takes it's time to unwind and once more, the explosion of force when it finally arrives is impressively powerful. This clearly is an album that is in no hurry to get where it wants to go, and it's all the better for it as the heavier sections hit that much harder.

 Third song 'We Glut Our Souls On The Accursed'  Is a curious beast, it's practically one giant build up with various instruments and textures being layered on top of one another until the whole thing sounds like an out of control freight train, it's quite a left turn after the first couple of songs.

 Last song 'And we Are Damned Amid Noble Sound' starts off with a cacophony of drums and guitars which sounds like being chased by a swarm of angry bees, it's quite unsettling which I think is the point. It takes some getting used to and rather outstays it's welcome in my opinion. It's a shame as the rest of the song is a fantastic doom laden grungy swamp of drudgery with plenty of low end goodness.

 Overall I thoroughly enjoyed my time with this album and although I personally loved the first 2 songs more than the last 2, there is a lot to like here and I would not hesitate to recommend this album.


Simon

post rock / experimental

Paralax Markovian Denigrate is an album released on July 10 by a Polish musician, under the alias of DeLaa Fargis. A very concise work, the record is only thirty-five minutes long, and has seven tracks: 1) Falling of...; 2) Confusion - The Manner; 3) Singularity Quantized; 4) Outdazzled; 5) Megachile Pluto; 6) Nonenzymic Paradox; 7) Deoxidized; with exceedingly beautiful melodies, and an expressively serene and poetic musical layout, the sensibility present on this work reveals an aggrandizing and quintessential level of artistry, whose refined, dense and proverbial degree of originality could not have generated another result, other than the magnificient state of the art work that Paralax Markovian Denigrate came out to be. 

With cohesive, but incredibly dilated harmonies — that expand in the direction of its passionate, but rational sensibilities —, this album is a remarkable conjuncture of musical virtues, that perfectly align together to obtain a functional and dynamic convergence of values, able to conceive astounding, colossal and pure symphonies in the process. Invariably, its glorious qualities surpass the boundaries of its own creative and splendid authorial universes, in all possible layers of sound. 

Displaying calmer melodies that navigates in the infinite ocean of a restless and everlasting dream, the music of DeLaa Fargis rises from a graceful combination between sensibility and tenacity. With some gracious and impeccable piano passages that definitely discloses a personal universe of introspective tenderness, its overall musical possibilities expand to a vast and intricate sonorous resurgence of domineering placidity, whose deliverance projects towards the structure of the melodies a salutary symbiosis of sentiments, that progressively escalates to a monumental and splendorous creative palace of miraculous and reinvigorating glory, that exhibits on the arduous melancholy of its notes all the majesty of its renitent, but bright originality.   

With an interesting sonority that displays a formidable degree of authenticity, Paralax Markovian Denigrate — by DeLaa Fargis —, is an absolutely spectacular and genuine work of art, that deserves to be highly appreciated. With an amazingly peculiar, profound and audacious musicality, this fantastic artist has all the necessary qualities to prosper in a fabulous career, with enough talent to propitiate to the increasingly ordinary underground scene the development of more lucid, sober and innovative standards. 



Wagner

post rock / ambient

Constants is an album released on July 19, by English post rock/ambient musical project Message To Bears, artistic nom de plume of songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jerome Alexander. Relatively concise, the record runs for little more than forty minutes, and has eleven tracks: 1) On Reflection; 2) Raining Whilst She Sleeps; 3) Pull Apart; 4) All We Said; 5) Rescue; 6) New Air; 7) Away from You; 8) Small Light; 9) Convalescence; 10) We All Were Swallowed By Sleep; 11) Nowhere; with a very smooth, tranquil and serene musical style, the harmonious layout designed for the project displays a sonorous virtuosity that is intrinsically functional, proverbial and elegant. Definitely, Constants doesn't disappoint, despite the fact that the album can be quite predictable. 

With a singular sensibility that really knows how and where to insert correctly preciously conceived melodies, the paroxysm of the harmonies is never frozen or doubtful; its colorful tonalities know precisely where they should be, sometimes going for an instinct of creative vitality, to properly fulfill its sonorous potential. The simplicity of treatment in what concerns the general evaluation and dynamics of the rhythm line is also another major point of strength and convergence for the work.  

Constants is a simple album, but its melodies were conceived with passion, enthusiasm and sincerity. Displaying a degree of commitment and seriousness that expresses all the singular virtuosities of the artist responsible for this marvelous work of art — Jerome Alexander —, its easy to understand the essence of his musical proposal, as well as the profound intensity that underlies the existential glory of his splendid creativity. 

In a general evaluation, while you can't expect too much innovative features on this album, Constants never disappoints, not even for a second. This Message To Bears release — despite its striking simplicity — or maybe, precisely because of it, is a marvelous, poetic and graciously beautiful album, that qualifies serenity as a fundamental virtuosity for the genre, absolutely essential for elegance and refinement to be achieved with renewed glory and majesty. 


Wagner

post rock / progressive rock

Transmission Zero is a Polish post rock trio, that released on June 25 their eponymous debut album. With incisive, robust and grandiloquent harmonies, the sound of the band is made primarily of beautiful compositions, that aggrandize the discreet expansions of their splendid and diffusive melodies. Departing from the most basic elements of the genre, Transmission Zero displays a modest degree of originality, that works in the flow of their elegant and dynamic, though proverbially dense musical style, while at the same time their gracious and organic compositions abundantly exposes a dilated serenity, that encourages the rhythm to function in an expressively clear and salutary essence.  

A little more than forty-two minutes long, the record is relatively concise, and has six tracks: 1) Vostok 0; 2) Lost and Found; 3) Illusion of Coincidence; 4) Closed Circuit; 5) Adrift/Alive; 6) Transgression; with a modest intensity that sometimes overemphasizes a respectable degree of minimalism, the sound of Transmission Zero is a primordially diluted, calm and transcendental journey into a deeply expansive, almost infinite everlasting realm of glorious symphonies, that conceives an atmosphere of sensible and introspective density, where life can be felt as a surrealist, but hermetic dream; one that is so strong, that the ordinary contingencies of existence will never be able to disrupt or to suppress its continuously growing strength, or to restrict the imperative nature of its vividness.

With exceedingly marvelous progressive elements intricately inserted into the musical layout, Transmission Zero elaborates on interesting and rapturous guitar lines the most sober and dynamic harmonies, though occasionally the sound resents itself of a certain level of generic and delusional grandeur. Nevertheless – despite minor deficiencies and insignificant limitations somewhat inherent to the genre – the album in general is a collection of beautiful, gracious and sensible songs, that exhibits a relevant level of professionalism and originality; if on one hand the album do not impress that much, on the other, also do not disappoint either. 

In a general evaluation, Transmission Zero – the album – is a lucid, proverbial, introspective and elegantly harmonious musical work, that deserves to be appreciated. Undoubtedly, it's a very promising beginning, for a band that has what it takes to fully succeed in the underground scene. 



Wagner

post rock 

The Spinning Heart is an album released on June 28, by American post rock band Hymns for the Angels, from Boston, Massachusetts. Sixty-five minutes long, the record has ten tracks: 1) Come with Me; 2) The Offering Hand; 3) The Magic Door; 4) Corridor of the Mammoth; 5) Disappearing Shadow; 6) Forbearance; 7) The Hideaway; 8) Focus; 9) Apparition Romance; 10) The Spinning Heart; with slow, but graceful and diligent harmonies, the sound of the band is very peaceful, humane and serene, though it is distinctly sensible, and definitely knows how to penetrate deeply into the soul of the listener, displaying a warm and gentle, but pungent sonority, that concentrates over the synergy of its lurid style the splendid universe of an everlasting apex of creative possibilities. 

Despite its homogeneous nature, the sound is carefully conceived, and gradually captivates the listener, entering the platform of its virtuous sensibilities with an almost minimalist, but impeccable density. With a strength that overcomes the vividness of its stylish boundaries, the sound that emerges from The Spinning Heart is astutely methodic, but also effusively dynamic, and its essence ostensibly reverberates under the sentiment of its inherently fatalist intensity, that is amazingly crafted over the vicinities of its hyperbolic melodic tenderness. 

Sometimes, the album seems to be going nowhere; however, these moments are scarce, and the vitality present in the music — displaying a subtle versatility and a delightfully unpredictable intuitive restlessness — definitely delivers a sense of organic melancholy to the horizon of its frozen dream, that makes the music to be amazingly captivating, while its more delicate and passionate elements drives the life on its notes towards a world of immaculate splendor, to wander permanently in a dimension of peaceful majesty, where a remarkable existence waits for the glory of your consciousness to fully arise. 

With a consistent and very cohesive sound, and an amazingly serene, remarkable style, that wanders through the elegance of its own spectacular vividness, The Spinning Heart shines in the graceful honesty of its harmonious and sober melancholy. While the sound sometimes appears to be too simple and repetitive, nevertheless, the graceful creativity and the gracious tenderness present in the melodies gives the album a sense of grandiosity, that rarely comes out of the genre nowadays. With an epic sensitivity that filters the graceful components of its proverbial and lucid calmness, this marvelous album released by Hymns for the Angels can be considered — almost literally —, a conjuncture of heavenly symphonies, designed and offered to the angels, for the sake of our vital redemption. Definitely, a majestic and wonderful work of art.   


Wagner

post rock / experimental / alternative

Kota — released in July 2 —, is the debut album of Kota Kota, the personal musical project of English musician Michael Holmes. Sixty-two minutes long, the album has nine tracks: 1)Black Waltz; 2)Lyric; 3)Extend Your Fingers; 4)The End; 5)Burleywood; 6)Transitions; 7)Until The Last Minute You Breathe; 8)Crimea River; 9)L'appel du Vide; with generally long tracks, and exceedingly marvelous and poetic harmonies, this album is filled with  a wonderfully crafted and formidably genuine creativity, that definitely elevates post rock to a whole new level of sagacious originality and splendorous sensibility, unprecedented since the conception of the genre. 

With dynamic melodies, and a very vivacious musical synergy, the sonorous atmosphere conceived in this majestic album circulates within the axis of its own graciosity. Displaying a serene, but conscious acquiescence that delightfully departs from the bright disposition of its fantastic and pristine tenderness, the sound created by the artist delivers directly to the soul the omnipotence of an everlasting beauty, whose poetic resurgence dissipates the eagerness of its volatile and captivating temperance.  

As the sound achieves the glory of the restless melancholy of its dispersive essence, the rhythm gets more and more pervasive, with all of its pungent density proclaiming in the vastness of its consistence the diligence of harmonies that will never fade away. 

With a clear and distinct sound that gradually departs from the latent darkness of its diluted consciousness, the style of the artist is simple, but delightfully graceful and beautiful, as the sound delivers a melancholic stupor that intrinsically reinvigorates the life present on its simple virtues. With its tempestuous dissonances gradually increasing, the rules of harmonies reborn in a more colorful landscape full of ghosts and shadows; otherwise, the melodies — indebted to a fascinating cosmogony that discreetly compensates in the peripheries of its glory a vast conjuncture of progressive elements and lethargic ordeals — rearrange in more graceful patterns the extraordinary creative devices that comprises the fascinating musical universe of Michael Holmes. 

With a smooth, expansive, unexpected and salutary degree of experimentalism, that delivers to the audience a musical sensibility engraved in an audacious virtuosity, the sound present in Kota is a marvelous exposition of authenticity, crafted by an expressively talented musician, that has all the necessary qualities to create an entirely new genre by himself, departing from the unlimited excellence of his own peculiar and formidable sense of incomparable originality.  


Wagner

post rock

Agora is an album released by German post rock band Eyes Of Emerald Green, on June 30. A primordially serene, poetic and beautiful work of art, the record – little more than thirty-eight minutes long – is relatively concise, though has five extensive tracks: 1) Approaching The Shore; 2) Agora; 3) Cave Of Memories; 4)[Rise, Run, Remain]; 5)The Decision Shall Be Final; with a cohesive, sensible and lucid, but at the same time dispersive and diluted style, the music of Eyes Of Emerald Green is a salutary, but sometimes baroque and intricate layer of sonorous tapestry, that emerges from the precipices of its resigned and instinctive darkness as solitary and melancholic as their resourceful creative convergences could possibly conceive, in a progressively elongated tissue of harmonious dissonances. 

With a beautiful – primarily peaceful and serene – musical cosmogony, that reflects a convoluted restlessness that tries desperately to dissipate the eagerness of its own introspective density, the sound of the band is overtly technical, though displays in the same proportion a fantastic degree of creative uneasiness, that captures in the axis of its moderately restrained melodies a fatalist anxiety, that delightfully expands its colorful sensitivities to a more fragmentary dome of isolation, gradually departing from the fugacious and primordial space established by a sober conjuncture of diluted and stable layers of sound. 

Displaying a calm musical style – that is comfortable enough to retain the possibilities available on its placid and digressive diagram of diffusive melodies –, Agora modestly reveals itself as a very extraordinary album, though sometimes the sound appears too excessively homogeneous. Nevertheless, its impeccable creative perceptions outline a vast degree of dynamic virtues, that makes the sound exponentially vivid for the most part, while intermittently seeking on the everlasting ocean of the solitary desolation of its restless organic elements the graceful despondency, that resurfaces over the pungent alignment of its majestic and resourceful harmonies. 

A marvelous album that displays a vigorous amount of authenticity, Agora is a formidable and excellent state of the art work, that gets very close to perfection. With an imponderable essence – and a soul full of renitent vitality –, that seems eager to captivate the listener by the competent and precise cohesion of its sonorous consistence, Eyes Of Emerald Green had conceived Agora as a fabulous and exceedingly admirable work, whose splendid originality deserves not only to be hugely exposed, but vastly appreciated. 


Wagner