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Don’t ever dare to ask me why, but I really do like split albums! And the record I am about to analyze now is an anthological split between Post-Rock acts pg.lost, from Sweden, and Wang Wen, from China. Although both are not well-known outside their respective home countries, they are veteran bands, pg.lost being active since 2006, and Wang Wen since 1999. So, both know what it means to endure and persist in the tough road of post-rock music, an underground genre with a somewhat narrow fan base.
Going directly to the point, I can say that their split album is interesting, with curious elements for the category, and an unusual approach that can mislead some of the most deep-hearted post-rock enthusiasts. With only five tracks, and a total length of 39:40, the pg.lost songs – the first two –, are the most heterogeneous ones, being well balanced with a fine structure of well dosed arrangements, deep rotted in a gracious but very dark melancholic setting, segregated by harmonies that circle the melodies in a very lucid sonorous scenery. Nevertheless, it’s important to point it out the fact that these two opening tracks – properly titled Desperdicio (part I) and Desperdicio (part II) – as the names would definitely suggest, are seen by the band as only one track divided in two (and since this is post-rock, it’s easy to believe!). The other three – the Wang Wen tracks –, titled 13th, Homeland Accent and Mouse Song are definitely a little more homogeneous, and ironically these three songs could be considered only one track, as if they were an extension of the same music, being a natural evolution of the starting point rhythm, since they are way more monotonous in tone, and stay that way.
With some elements of hard rock, yet stranded in a post-rock stillness, the pg.lost tracks are a fine example of musical excellence and relevance, situated in an atmosphere of haze, grace and solemnity, that transforms sorrow into a masterpiece of gloom and grief, all framed up in a synthesis of sound and sense that will rearrange your feelings in a curious alternating state of trance and rapture. When the Wang Wen tracks begin, the musical highness digresses, and, although you might think at the beginning that the high level of artistry will stay throughout the record, it declines a little, although I should write that here we also deal with an unusual, and at a certain point interesting, contrast of different styles, which will be an obvious attestation, since we have two different bands at the forefront here.
I personally liked way more the pg.lost tracks, since, a few minutes away from the beginning of the Wang Wen first track, you can get a little bored, and, since the pace of their music doesn’t change too much, you don’t feel too motivated to continue listening to it, although I am not saying it is bad, but it is a little too much static to compel you to listening to the entire record. The post-rock genre can be dangerous in a way that – if you’re not creative enough – you will be playing the same music over and over again, since it is almost a “frozen” genre, and the melodies, to captivate its audience, should be as alive as the colors in an impressionistic painting. The Wang Wen part is cool, but the pg.lost tracks are simply wonderful. So, contrary to most split albums, this is not a typical case of well-defined symmetry between two bands, although both outfits seem accurately clocked, regarding the time of their songs: the pg.lost tracks stays between nine and ten minutes long, and the Wang Wen tracks are all six minutes long, in average. Regardless of the complex contrasts between the two bands, their different styles and the strained combination on having both in the same record, we can’t deny the fact that the final result turned out to be a good one, legitimate and very faithful to its post-rock roots and elements.
Wagner
Going directly to the point, I can say that their split album is interesting, with curious elements for the category, and an unusual approach that can mislead some of the most deep-hearted post-rock enthusiasts. With only five tracks, and a total length of 39:40, the pg.lost songs – the first two –, are the most heterogeneous ones, being well balanced with a fine structure of well dosed arrangements, deep rotted in a gracious but very dark melancholic setting, segregated by harmonies that circle the melodies in a very lucid sonorous scenery. Nevertheless, it’s important to point it out the fact that these two opening tracks – properly titled Desperdicio (part I) and Desperdicio (part II) – as the names would definitely suggest, are seen by the band as only one track divided in two (and since this is post-rock, it’s easy to believe!). The other three – the Wang Wen tracks –, titled 13th, Homeland Accent and Mouse Song are definitely a little more homogeneous, and ironically these three songs could be considered only one track, as if they were an extension of the same music, being a natural evolution of the starting point rhythm, since they are way more monotonous in tone, and stay that way.
With some elements of hard rock, yet stranded in a post-rock stillness, the pg.lost tracks are a fine example of musical excellence and relevance, situated in an atmosphere of haze, grace and solemnity, that transforms sorrow into a masterpiece of gloom and grief, all framed up in a synthesis of sound and sense that will rearrange your feelings in a curious alternating state of trance and rapture. When the Wang Wen tracks begin, the musical highness digresses, and, although you might think at the beginning that the high level of artistry will stay throughout the record, it declines a little, although I should write that here we also deal with an unusual, and at a certain point interesting, contrast of different styles, which will be an obvious attestation, since we have two different bands at the forefront here.
I personally liked way more the pg.lost tracks, since, a few minutes away from the beginning of the Wang Wen first track, you can get a little bored, and, since the pace of their music doesn’t change too much, you don’t feel too motivated to continue listening to it, although I am not saying it is bad, but it is a little too much static to compel you to listening to the entire record. The post-rock genre can be dangerous in a way that – if you’re not creative enough – you will be playing the same music over and over again, since it is almost a “frozen” genre, and the melodies, to captivate its audience, should be as alive as the colors in an impressionistic painting. The Wang Wen part is cool, but the pg.lost tracks are simply wonderful. So, contrary to most split albums, this is not a typical case of well-defined symmetry between two bands, although both outfits seem accurately clocked, regarding the time of their songs: the pg.lost tracks stays between nine and ten minutes long, and the Wang Wen tracks are all six minutes long, in average. Regardless of the complex contrasts between the two bands, their different styles and the strained combination on having both in the same record, we can’t deny the fact that the final result turned out to be a good one, legitimate and very faithful to its post-rock roots and elements.
Wagner
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