Let's Talk About Post Rock

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Handsome_Chris said:

I know I'm going to show myself up here, but I've got some Post Rock (Kid A by Radiohead)

Nope Chris mate, you're right.  I've always said that Radiohead were very much influence by the like of Mogwai at the time just with a dah of NIN.

Deijavoo said:

Although, I do bloody hate Explosions In The Sky.

Last night I was going through some stuff and actually EITS kind of perfectly some up that line.  It lacks the aggression and passion of some other stuff and they way too often stray into the bland and predictable.  It very easily becomes background music.

Years ago when I worked in a record store things were easier but now with limited time to listen to new music I find it really tricky to track down something new without wading through so much shit.  It probably irritates my more because unlike a lot of other stuff where I can pretty much go "Yeah, love/hate this!" quite quickly, I find myself wasting so much time listening to the first three minutes of something that ultimately goes nowhere.  It's depressing both ways because it makes my too lazy to bother checking new stuff at points.  I'd gone through a long spell of reverting to the old faithfuls.  Then listening to @deijavoo's, @Drew_FX's and @GavHaus's stuff reminds me that there is actually great new stuff around and makes music exciting again.  As we started recording again I kind of needed that boot. 

I think the current drowning of the music scene (in London anyhow) with dullard 'two-notes, delay, reverb, repeat' post-rock is probably the most responsible for my malaise.

Deijavoo

Yeah, the enigmatic clean, tremolo picking build up middle section into nothing grinds my gears. Mainly as I'm guilty of writing that stuff far too often.

GY!BE do it to perfection mind you, Levez Vou never fails to "get me".

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Deijavoo said:

G!YBE do it to perfection mind you, Levez Vou never fails to "get me".

By us is a common which is one of four highest points in London.  When you're pissed off or depressed nothing quite beats taking the dogs for a walk on a windy day, standing on the top of that hill listening to Skinny Fists or F#A#.

Deijavoo

Imagining 28 Days Later? :-)

A guy I know/knew once did an ep with the sound of him solving a rubix cube included. 

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Deijavoo said:

Imagining 28 Days Later? :-)

Pretty much mate.  Although a viral-zombie holocaust would be a pain in many ways, going up to Wimbledon village to find it full of rich UKIP supporting zombies (so much like it is now) but with the legal need for a culling would be beneficial for our community.

Deijavoo

The final scene was done up here and yes it is as desolate as it depicts there. Great film really.

It was released when I worked in a Virgin Megastore and had to endure the story of how they filmed the famous quiet London scenes on the hour, every hour.

thomasross20

Going by the names of some of those bands, I'm not into post rock. Please post your fave post rock tracks and I'll listen.

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Here you go @thomasross20 -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9thvHDskYvA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ST2H8FWDvEA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyxEU8khtrE

thomasross20

Thanks - will listen to this stuff throughout the day at work.

ICBM

http://www.travelwithscottandjanice.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/IMG_1916.jpg

thomasross20

Only really liked the 28 Weeks Later track there, to be honest! SOrry!

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thomasross20 said:

Only really liked the 28 Weeks Later track there, to be honest! SOrry!

No need to be sorry, that is the beauty of the scope of music we have to choose from.  Now if you said you didn't like Strats then that'd be a different story.

thomasross20

EDIT : TBH I find a lot of it unchallenging and a bit boring - it's easy to play slow parts that meld together but it gets a bit repetitive and goes on for a bit, often sounding quite dull to me. I don't think it's a challenge for the artist in terms of technique or musicality. Each to their own though - I'm stuck in an 80s time warp.

Drew_TNBD

thomasross20 said:

it's easy to play slow parts that meld together

Hmmm... nope.

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Drew_fx said:

thomasross20 said:

it's easy to play slow parts that meld together

Hmmm... nope.

You're wrong man - Shred is the future.  If you can't shred your band's dead - end of.

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thomasross20 said:

I don't think it's a challenge for the artist in terms of technique or musicality.

Out of interest, we can probably guess the areas you me when you say 'technique' as you've said you feel playing slow stuff the meld together is easy, but what do you consider to be challenging in 'musicality'? 

Drew_TNBD

https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfa1/v/t1.0-9/11403462_1594351247513957_5908468036630569549_n.jpg?oh=7e6b4802d1c4437106ec8741c4d90f68&oe=56694406

bingefeller

Best post-rock albums according to RYM.  

EricTheWeary

I'm still mentally scarred from listening to Russian Circles (who seem to get described as Post Rock) years ago. Whilst my tastes are fairly old bloke ones I've dabbled in a few things that many may find unlistenable / non mainstream but they took that to a new level for me. Maybe that's good, maybe there should be stuff that's challenging that I don't understand but Post Rock is a hard sell to some of us.

|)

thomasross20

Lol, I don't mean to open a can of worms here!! 

Just as the more shred/fusion/instrumental stuff isn't for everybody, neither is hard metal / Djent / post-rock / jazz for me. With the post-rock stuff I know loads of bands that do it (one of my pals here is in a band like that) and the parts seem a bit dull to me and pretty easy to play. NOT that everything has to be difficult to play (some Malmsteen sounds great but other stuff ridiculous) but I feel it's an easy way out and achievable by many. I find the nature of the music to be somewhat depressing and samey - I always like to hear lots of key changes or new ideas, atonality, different moods (I like happy stuff) and even if in the same key, parallel modulation and that sort of thing makes my ears stand up. I put a lot of this into my own stuff but arguably too much. I probably listen to 8 hours of music a day at least and my ear really becomes attuned to picking out multiple complex parts and listening out for nuances and new ideas. Some of the stuff here left me feeling dead bored (no offence!) and the thread about Steve Wilson - I don't get it. Now Guthrie, Greg Howe etc - that's exciting, challenging and musically interesting. Taking it a tone down where things are a tad easier but still musically thrilling, 80s bands like G N' R, Extreme, Van Halen - that's the shit right there! Such variety, pumps the blood and still retains an element of virtuosity. I like knowing these guys sweated blood and have attained a level of technical and musical mastery - top for instrumental musicality for me has to be Satriani - his tunes ooze it and we all know he uses parallel modulation, modes etc left right and centre. I know some of you guys are really into post-rock and play that sort of stuff and that's cool - it's just not my thing. I do "get" some jazz but that also sometimes leaves me feeling a bit bored, despite the complexity and virtuosity of a lot of it - the excitement factor is missing there. I don't know if I've covered musicality enough but with this stuff, I think it just lacks something. It's like people play random notes and it sounds ok to them and they piece it all together and this thing grows from it but it just sounds dead dull to me - there's nothing that catches my ear. I've probably been listening to too much extreme stuff! Also, I don't hate my mommy and daddy so that might have something to do with it (only joking lol, referencing my "disaffected youths" comment earlier). I don't see much of this stuff standing the test of time or being in the top charts (like Pink Floyd, Guns, Beatles etc). 

Again, no offence - just not my thing. World would be boring if we all liked the same thing!