post rock / sludge

Anonymous band collective from England releases a concept album about a dead African elephant that an old Nazi tried to bring back to life but that was then rescued by a female shaman who has her own plans for the creature. Whaaat?! Yeah, it sounds like the story of a crossover between Hellboy and Raiders of the Lost Ark – one never knows how seriously the collective takes its music. But one must admit that it is catching and one has heard worse stories to base a record on.

Bull Elephant from London do an interesting mix of post-rock and sludge with some death metal-tinges to portray the savage nature of the creature. It is a mix that sometimes really surprises with a lot of coherence, however there are some moments – especially the high-pitched clean vocals – that makes the author of this review wonder, if they really wanted to sound like an 80s hair metal band. It’s not as if the singer is incapable of doing that, it just sounds too cheesy and takes away from the band’s seriousness. But wait – maybe that is exactly what this shall be?!

The concept is hilarious, the music is really good, sometimes doomy, sometimes fast, quite often pretty and posty with clean licks and the drums are really driving and energetic. The vocals alternate between 70s proto metal, the glam vocals mentioned before and some death grunts. They have a knack for making those seven songs spanning 38 minutes really worthwhile and entertaining.

One definite flaw is the typo used for the otherwise really excellent artbook – it’s barely readable, but maybe that’s due to the electronic press kit. An album that will amuse you with its savages attacks, its own take on the stories of old that we loved on the big screen, its hilarious portrayal of the Nazis trying to embrace anything remotely occult. If you want your music serious and thoughtful, then do not follow this record, if you like it with an ironic twist – then this will put a smile upon your face. 


​Thorsten

post rock

anxiety is the debut album of Russian post rock project waiting for the wind, released in November 15. A very concise musical effort — only thirty-three minutes long —, the record has seven tracks: 1) Predestination (Intro); 2) Signal's not getting here; 3) Dust of other cities; 4) Through the stratosphere; 5) ...and light will go out forever; 6) Compressive void; 7) Scattered in space; a simple, but fantastic record, with exceedingly beautiful harmonies, anxiety reveals a mature, sober and technically competent artist, in full accordance with its deeply graceful sonorous proposal. Alongside a very personal musical style, effusevely dynamic, expressive, colorful, and to a certain extent, belligerent, the musician behind waiting for the wind delivers with a cohesive degree of sagacious rapture a very clean, diluted and poetic sound, whose graceful conjuncture of qualities make the album a sensational sensitive experience. 

Despite the fact that the album is very short, the level of beauty and originality displayed in the work is exceptionally magnificent, for a debut. Clearly, this is the work of a proficient and experienced artist, that knows exactly in which direction he wants to take his creativity and what he must do to achieve his artistic goals. With a deeply authorial sound — and a marvelous technical sensibility —, anxiety reveals itself to be an excellent masterpiece, from start to finish, that deserves to be fully praised by all enthusiasts of the genre.

The melodies, in general, are simple, but also masterfully crafted. They flow easily throughout the sound, and from the very beginning — with the exceptionally brief, but wonderfully serene and majestic first track Predestination (Intro) —, the artist delivers gracefully consistent and expansive bridges of melancholy, that works splendidly over a monumental galaxy of sentimental vitalities, whose sound incorporates a dense, but lurid expression of introspective solitude.     

A very exceptional album, that has everything to impress and to delight post rock enthusiasts everywhere, anxiety, by waiting for the wind, is a magnificent and unexpected debut. With a splendid style, and a wonderfully cohesive musicality — whose structure reinvigorates as much as respects the general principles of the genre —, this majestic record has no faults nor negative aspects whatsoever. Perfect in style, development, sonority and displaying graceful harmonies entirely compatible with the density of its own lugubrious nature, with a length that leaves the listener wanting more, anxiety is a sensational state of the art work, that deserves to be a massive success in the underground community.


Wagner

post rock/ progressive rock / alternative rock

The Shape Of Things To Come is an album released in November 16, by progressive rock project No Sudden Moves, from Melbourne, Australia. A very concise musical effort, the record is just over thirty-six minutes long. With eight tracks — 1) The Shape Of Things To Come; 2) Cause And Effect; 3) Stroll On; 4) First Contact; 5) Nothing's Easy; 6) The Space Between; 7) This Is The Life; 8) I Wander; — The Shape Of Things To Come is a sensationally beautiful album, despite the fact that it does not bring any extravagant innovation into the forefront of the genre. Nevertheless, the record display phenomenal virtues, that deserves to be highlighted. Its light, clean and well-diluted sound is harmonically cohesive, exceptionally vivid and radically authorial, at least to a certain level. 

The style of the artist is technically consistent and displays a respectable degree of proficiency; as a matter of fact, each track possesses its own singular qualities. The serene poetic densities of the third track, Stroll On, and the oblique tonalities of the fifth track, Nothing's Easy — whose melodies ultimately converts into a moderately progressive tune —, exhibit a thoughtful and efficient eclecticism, that over the course of the entire album, demonstrates in a very undisputed fashion that the artist is quite secure even in an expressive range of musical territories, though he never leaves the genre, knowing how to explore lucidly, and how to add especial flavors, even to the assiduously traditional diagrams conceived by the wonderful mosaic that his spectacular style invariably becomes. 

With a sensible and serene sonorous disposition, that eagerly projects over the diffusive lines of its melodies the dense elements of its own introspective horizon of dispersive and abstract creativity, the music exhibited on this work — despite the extensive use of elements that make the sonority, to a certain degree, quite predictable —, is also surprisingly versatile and distinct, because the artist already in the beginning displays his ability to explore wisely and profusely the most diverse conjuncture of tonalities, resonances and harmonies, within the expansive dimensional context of his restless and proverbial style. 

There's no doubt that the overall sound displayed by the artist is profoundly sensible and original. With a serene, but at the same time colorful gracefulness, the artist conceives a world of sound so dehydrated and detached — whose unimaginable beauty stands beyond the horizon of its own soul —, that the fantastic tranquility crafted by the music creates a renitent splendor, that floats endlessly towards the everlasting poetic nature of its wonderfully sensitive and delightful melodies. 

Despite the fact that — in a general evaluation — the music displayed by this artist is quite simple, The Shape Of Things To Come reveals itself as a majestically unique and very audacious work of art, whose most virtuous elements come from its subtle authorial ambitions, that at first doesn't stand out, but slowly expand to all sonorous spaces, like the sunlight, that slowly illuminates the whole morning. With primarily organic compositions that exalt the full vigor of its elegant beauty, this album is a remarkable milestone of ambient rock music, that deserves to be fully appreciated, and above of all, recognized by the graceful uniqueness, the authorial sensibilities and the splendorous consistency of its versatile and dynamic musicality.


Wagner

post rock

bandcamp

Silentium Noctis is an album released in November 13, by Hungarian musician Balázs Pallai, under the alias Vitvingod. Despite the fact that this is a very concise musical effort, with an extensive length inferior to twenty-seven minutes, Silentium Noctis reveals itself as a very consistent, beautiful, genuine and gracious album, which exhibits a positively mature and complete artist, fully willing to revolutionize his genre of choice. With seven tracks — 1) Blood Moonlight; 2) Black Grouse Ballet; 3) Faraway Frosty Fields; 4) The Darkest Night; 5) Goddess of the Red Forest; 6) Cold as Ice; 7) In the Dead of Winter; —, this album is as concise as it is formidable, relevant in all the exceptionally efficient conjuncture of qualities it subtlety exposes, in the onset of its marvelous delicacy and refined sensibilities. 

Already in the beginning, it's impossible not to become fully impressed by the gracious notion of musical nobility brought in by the artist, and his exceedingly great, expansive and elegant style, probably his most salutary virtue. The majestic poetry of the third track, Faraway Frosty Fields, or the fantastic surrealist beauty of the fourth, The Darkest Night, are primary examples of fabulous anthems of genuine creativity, sonorous drafts of a diffusive reality, whose striking power is effectivelly able to conceive something entirely authentic and fascinating. With a sensational abundance of dense splendor — that engraves the sound as a spectacular domain of sensitive grandiosity —, besides the creative level, the technical elements are also displayed with competent and responsible proficiency. The artist progressively reveals itself as a potential candidate for the next great talent of post rock in the underground scene.  

The guitar and even the bass lines — which are difficult to outstand in this genre —, are marvelously conceived and executed. Harmonies' ripples express with vibrant grace the fantastic energy that circulates within the melodies, as well as the general dynamic carried out by the vivid tonalities that serves as fuel for the artist's creative perception. Despite the fact that the musical structure is somewhat simple, the colorful arrangements and the gracefully conceived melodies make Silentium Noctis a sensational, spectacular, fundamental masterpiece, that has all the necessary qualities to become the next big thing in the history of post rock. Balázs Pallai proves with unquestionable veracity, with this short and brief, but paradoxically peculiar and original milestone, that his creativity is a fundamental element for the future development of the genre.   

Silentium Noctis is one of those albums where nothing goes wrong. Right, you can say that in such short amount of time — after all, the album is only twenty-six minutes and twenty-six seconds long —, the artist didn't had the opportunity to ruin the album with some hypothetical bad tracks. Fair enough. But I would say that with his gracefully formidable, differentiated and authentically proverbial talent, at least in the present moment he couldn't do anything wrong, even if he tried. This is a very spectacular, wonderful record, whose glorious level of musical gracefulness overcame all possible creative barriers. With technical sensibility and a very dynamic, profoundly introspective sonorous restlessness, this talented Hungarian musician has crafted one of the most incredible, unique and sagacious records in the history of post rock. A work of art that certainly deserves to be recognized as a landmark of the genre. 


Wagner

post rock

Endless Summers is an album released on November 22, by Swedish post rock project Old Seas / Young Mountains. With nine relatively extensive tracks — 1) have you ever seen the stars?; 2) dreamcrawler; 3) night driving; 4) lost skylines; 5) endless summers; 6) ferocity; 7) among the wildflowers; 8) xenon; 9) dandelion / dreaming; —, the album departs from exceedingly conventional harmonies, though there is quite an exceptional level of surreal and serene beauty profoundly aligned to the density of the group's simple, but graceful musical style. 

With splendorous and salutary melodies, that becomes easily correlated with the sensible virtues of its affable sonority, Endless Summers proves to be a very conventional, but pleasant listening experience, that if on the one hand, does not bring technical nor artistic innovations into the forefront, has enough spiritual balance to craft a formidable and inspiring sound — displaying a moderate degree of audacity and originality —, that is expressively genuine and lucid in the veracity of its creative proposal.  

With the predominance of soft and beautiful harmonies — which infuses the environment with the vitality of an artistic splendor so exceptionally gracious, that you become quite astounded with the poetic sensibility displayed by the sound —, as the album evolves, its qualities becomes more and more diluted, though they also expand to more organic levels of unapprehended and delightful creativity. The colorful essence and the gentle nature of the sound seeks to overcome the diluted melancholy of its inherent despondency, though the sound concomitantly transpire a confidence and a sense of happiness that adorn the effusive magnificence of its own universe of introspective tenderness.

With impressively cohesive and fantastic guitar lines — that transcends the scale of its own circular, but everlasting dreamlike vicissitudes —, the musical structure, despite the abrasive nature of its objectivity, reveals in the sensible horizon of its innocent simplicity the grandiosity of an artistic ambition that certainly has an abundant degree of restlessness pursuing its own creative expansion. So on this album, we have the almost perfect junction between technique and sensibility, raised to an almost flawless degree of proficient majesty.

Despite the lack of innovative features, the exceedingly beautiful harmonies displayed on the record make Endless Summers a very interesting and — to a moderate degree — spectacular album, that has enough virtues to delight post rock enthusiasts and audiences unequivocally. We may even say, in a certain way, that it is more of the same; however, it is an excellent plus of it.


Wagner

progressive rock / post rock / experimental

Revolution is an album released in November 19, by Spanish post rock experimental project EXXASENS. A very interesting, dynamic and energetic album, that fluctuates over a variety of ecletic atmospheres, the versatility of this fantastic project is something almost out of reach. With a cohesive, solid musicality, and a proverbially clean style, Revolution reveals itself as a primordially graceful, effusive, pristine, elegant and very audacious work of art, that generates in the apex of its diluted style a proficient and sophisticated diagram of creative synergy, whose singular strenght is able to reach an extraordinary vortex of artistic splendor.  

Sixty-nine minutes long, the album has sixteen tracks: 1) Massachusetts; 2) A Space Odyssey; 3) Twenty One Years and One Day; 4) Revolution; 5) Why Not?; 6) Bye Bye Moscow; 7) Vega; 8) Eden; 9) Dream Is Over; 10) Another Space Odyssey; 11) Inside My Brain; 12) Since I Met You; 13) Eden's Place; 14) Dreams Are Over; 15) Autumn Storms; 16) Air; as a project that explores the overall density of a very proverbial and authorial musical proposal, EXXASENS does a surprising work on this fantastic album. With a cohesive, but at the same time easygoing style, a formidable creative horizon and exceedingly sober vocals — at least in some songs, the vast majority of the album is instrumental —, Revolution is a deeply pronounced ambitious album, that expands the creative formula of the artist's perception of sound.

With prog rock being the basis for the sound, the artist's style works from the musical conjuncture of this genre. Nevertheless, the marvelous atmosphere displayed by the harmonies conceives a serene universe of sound, whose magnificent technique anticipates the wonderful grandiosity of the project's somewhat innocent, but overwhelming artistic pretensions. The music is felt as simple, but splendorous at the same time; certainly, the diluted consecration of the formidable melodies that are poured through the edges of the sincere tones of the sound gets more and more rapturous, as the album progresses. 

Betting on a diversity of genres, letting the authenticity of his style reverberate over each one, the artist has crafted a formidably great, excellent and versatile musical universe, full of unexpected arrangements and colorful tonalities, that doesn't recognize boundaries nor limits for its fantastic creativity. The eleventh and fourteenth tracks — Inside My Brain and Dreams Are Over — are my favorites; the most beautiful songs in the album, in my opinion. 

A very interesting album, whose deeply authorial style and audacious experimental sensibilities captivates the listener already in the beginning, Revolution is a majestic work of art, whose gloriously creative ambitions make this work stand out for its ingeniousness and sonorous grace. Despite the fact that the album is a little too extensive — and invariably you become somewhat bored in the more repetitive passages —, the end result is fabulous, to say the least. Revolution manages to be a sensational musical experience, whose extraordinary creativity has definitely crafted a peculiar work of art, that deserves praise for all of its quintessential tenacious virtues.   


Wagner

post rock / progressive rock

bandcamp

Ineffable is an album released on November 5, by Hungarian musician József Tóth, under the alias Abehrum. Almost forty-three minutes long, the record has six tracks: 1) Aquiver; 2) Mellifluous; 3) Hiraeth; 4) Ineffable; 5) Ethereal; 6) Cromulent; a beautiful work of art — with powerfully exhilarating harmonies —, the musical style display an abundant, pristine and dense cohesiveness, whose melodies rely almost entirely on the redemptive eagerness of a dispersive and colorful atmosphere, that is perfectly inserted in a dynamic conjuncture of profoundly expansive and profusely dilated creativity.   

Although the sound seems simple at first, the exceptional creativity displayed by József Tóth is immersed in a horizon of infatuated authenticity, whose splendorous and magnificent beauty becomes gracefully correlated with the majestic sensibility of his musical style. With poetic, but straightforward guitar lines — perfectly aligned with a passionate and expressively authorial density, whose genuine proficiency circumnavigates the horizon of its own intrinsic nature —, the formidable sonorous journey engraved by the artist's personal musical ambitions elucidate the reason of a projective sensibility, that emanates directly from the creational perspective of an inherently graceful, restless and objective mind. 

Despite the fact that the sound goes down in generally abstract paths, the style of the artist is expressively clean, sensible and direct. While the melodies can be entirely appreciated over the strikingly graceful elements of dissolute beauty that define its structure, its graceful harmonies float above the existence of a pure and simple tenderness, that mantains consistently the impeccable nature of its wonderful paroxism, as well as the technical proficiency that gives the music an extensive support to generate accurately a perceptive and marvelous sense of spectacular infinity. 

Although the sound becomes too homogeneous after some time, the style of the artist is overwhelmingly dynamic and exceedingly promising; his ability to make spectacular music is easy to perceive from the beginning of the record. While the best tracks, in my modest opinion, are the first two — Aquiver and Mellifluous —, the entire record is an extraordinary sensorial experience. Undoubtedly, Ineffable is a very good album, that deserves to be discovered and widely appreciated. 


Wagner

post rock / post metal

Earlier this month, I published a few wishful predictions for Dunk! Fest 2020 (read). Belgian post rock/metal combo Turpentine Valley were mentioned in there and somehow I feel like that was a little spoiler. I mean, there is no way that Turpentine Valley are not going to occupy the stage in Zottegem. Here is why:
1. Their new album is released by Dunk! Records. 2. They're from Zulte, only 31 kilometers from the sacred festival grounds.
3. Their music will be featured on 'De Twaalf', a new Flemish fiction series on één. 
4. 'Etch' is a smasher, containing tracks that will easily immerse and overwhelm the crowd. 

Which is all good and well, but how does this album sound exactly? Well, if you look at their facebook page, you'll quickly notice that Russian Circles is one of their major influences. Deftones and If These Trees Could Talk are also in that list. So you can expect some rolling bass, a busload of grooving riffs and an atmosphere to float on. It all begins rather carefully in 'Abrupt', which gradually tries to lure the listener in. If that doesn't work, 'Compromis' will probably do the trick, driving on intensity and impressiveness. From there, the band rages on with an ever pulsating blend of post rock and post metal.

​The short intermezzo 'Ballast' is oddly enough one of my favorites here, but I'm a dark ambient fan so that's quite natural. It mostly serves as an intro for the sonic bulldozer 'Vergeten'. These are riffs that will grind an audience to pulp, combined with a gritty atmosphere, doomed out rhythms and gloomy guitar-scapes. Like I said before, top shelf Dunk! material, no doubt about that. 'Trauma' is perhaps the most representative for Turpentine Valley: meticulously composed post metal, adding tiny licks of alternative rock and kneading it into a post metal statement, or monument, if you will. 

In the beginning of the album, I thought this was a decent, interesting debut, but halfway through 'Trauma' I'm blown away by not only the sheer intensity but also the technical aspects of the whole thing. And that's not just me. My wife just said "dat is een debuut of wat? Fucking hell"! I'm not going to translate that. Guys from Zulte will understand. Anyway, while the equally strong 'Compassie' rolls through my speakers, I can only recommend this beauty to all you post metal fans out there. Yes, this is only a debut, which obviously means that the stakes are high. Turpentine Valley are here to dominate the post-scene...


​Serge

post rock

Vaudlow is the debut album of an eponymous American post rock band, from Nashville, Tennessee, released in November 1. Thirty-six minutes long, the record has seven tracks: 1) The Counterpart; 2) This Could Be Ours; 3) Mend; 4) Chorale; 5) Maeror Meus; 6) Blue Desolate; 7) Obliviate; with beautiful, calm and dense harmonies, the style of the group is absolutely typical post-rock, though at times they incorporate with graceful subtlety some elements of progressive rock. There is nothing on this album that you haven't heard a hundred times before in other works of the genre; nevertheless, there is enough creative and technical competence present in Vaudlow to make the listening of this album a mandatory task. 

With a superb melodic proficiency — and moderate, cohesive harmonies —, the musical tonalities fluctuates above the groundbreaking devices of its flexible anatomy. The serene atmospheres conceived by the generally consistent musical standards of the group definitely collaborates to make their graciously resonating sonorous modulations a marvelous sensitive experience, whose protuberating calmness is occasionally disrupted by exceedingly audacious and diluted dispersive reverberations, that always converge to an ocean of abundant and delightful serenity. 

Of course, don't get me wrong; sometimes, the music gets ostensibly predictable, like I've pointed out some lines above. Nevertheless, this fact
does not diminish the graceful epic beauty of the magnificent grandiloquent style delivered by the group. The sound has a powerful and genuine virtuosity — that is felt primarily by the gentle grasp of the harmonies' discreet tonalities —, that slowly articulates the warm existential disintegration of its gracefully melodic features, over the benevolent cosmogony of a dense , placid and diffusive musical nature.  

Generally speaking, the eponymous  debut album of Vaudlow is a very graceful and diligent work of art, despite the fact that the sound resents itself of some stylistic sonorous limitations. Revealing a consistent and cohesive musical group, whose talents are flexible enough to dilapidate — initially in a moderate and restricted context — a new creative conjuncture to the genre, Vaudlow doesn't disappoint. 

With their beautiful harmonies, salutary sensibility and a strict adherence to the general guidelines of post rock, this debut album certainly has enough qualities to be appreciated by enthusiastic audiences. While you cannot expect anything too extraordinary to come out of it, undoubtedly you will find abundant, formidable, deeply humane beauty, in each note played, in all these amazing tracks. Vaudlow will amuse you with remarkable moments of majestic and everlasting serenity. 


Wagner

post rock / progressive

There are some bands who definitely state their idea of music within the name itself. The Kompressor Experiment from Switzerland is one of these bands, with a name that is partially German and English, even though Kompressor is only spelled a little differently. Nevertheless, what is a Kompressor Experiment? Are they experimenting with compressing air or rather – are they trying to push a lot of ideas into a record? 

Well, the Sion-based quartet shows with the title and cover of their new record already which musical concept they are following: “2001” – more than a nod to Kubrick’s famous science-fiction classic – is a record that is as much influenced by movies as it is (seemingly) following bands like Tides from Nebula, Cinematic Orchestra or Oh, Hiroshima. The record is pure post-rock but with a lot of sounds seemingly straight from the modern movie alphabet. The cover is like a scene from Gravity with one astronaut apparently lost in space hanging on to the thin air tube for dear life.

“EMP.AI” is a good example for the cinematic aspect of the record as the track follows a long winding road through America’s Monument Valley with a lot of dust being whirled up because of a long trail of horses following a single rider trying to escape the attack of the wild west gang behind him. Or it is an astronaut finding himself in a sandstorm on Mars – both ideas are being promoted by the western-like, sandy sound of the guitar which purrs like taken from a Sergio Leone – movie. 

However, there is more to “2001”; the band is capable of playing crunching and gut-wrenching riffs, especially “Monolith I” (a kind of non-linear triptych on the album) is able to show real force and power and to combine all of the band’s ideas and motifs. The beginning could be a soundtrack to a new science-fiction movie with all its industrial synthesizer-like sounds – resembling the engine of a spaceship slowly passing by – opening the album before a strong, powerful riff kicks in and leads the track into a futuristic wasteland scenario. 

The three longtracks are not always nicely balanced, some parts may be a bit long – to use a movie-like comparison: Not all movies are one-shots. Nevertheless, by and large, the band really shows a lot of promising ideas and blends them into a more than solid post-rock record with a strong concept and a lot of nicely ambiguous details.


​Thorsten