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26 minutes ago, Freki said:

Yeah saw that pop up on FB. Spinning now.

Dude, you're going to love it.  This guy has such a talent for writing catchy guitar stuff.  It never gets stale or boring, and the pacing of the songs is perfect.  Never too long.  I'll check out that Watter stuff now, I've seen them thrown around a bit too. 

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On 1/19/2018 at 10:53 AM, Gumbo72203 said:

Coming in early for what is definitely a contender for tops of 2018, a debut project from the UK.  This band/album was produced and helped out by dudes from Coastlands.  It is *much* better than Coastlands IMO.  Definitely give this a spin, this stuff is really fucking good.  It mixes the slow-build, low-dynamic style of S/T by TWDY or This Patch of Sky with soaring melodies and crushing guitar peaks, a tactic we have heard many times before.  Pretty "traditional" as far as style goes, but man this stuff is really well-done.  The sense of melody is very strong and the songs remain interesting, something which is very difficult with this style of slow-burn post-rock.  The "chill" parts of these songs are fresh and engaging for me, and they never drag out longer than necessary. 

 

I strongly urge all of you to check this out, I think all of us here are going to really dig this. 

 

https://thesunburnsbright.bandcamp.com/releases

I respect individual tastes, but this one really has my scratching my head wondering what you hear in this. This album makes Collapse Under the Empire sound like Godspeed in their prime. Literally EVERY song sits at 5:30 ± :30, and I've never seen a band so egregiously milk the "start slow, then explode" post-rock archetype. For anyone that wants to challenge me on this, I invite you to click the link and listen to two timestamps on each song: one at 1:20, and one at 3:40. With ONE exception ("Sky, Wind, and Waves"), the former is your average ride-cymbal beat, tender guitar plucks; the latter your cookie-cutter multi-layer guitar riffs in major keys, titanic drums - you get the idea. (In "Never Departing Shadow" the crescendo comes about 30 seconds earlier, and in "Home is Not a Place..." a little later, just in case Gumbo comes for my head.)

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On 1/21/2018 at 1:53 PM, omik11303 said:

I respect individual tastes, but this one really has my scratching my head wondering what you hear in this. This album makes Collapse Under the Empire sound like Godspeed in their prime. Literally EVERY song sits at 5:30 ± :30, and I've never seen a band so egregiously milk the "start slow, then explode" post-rock archetype. For anyone that wants to challenge me on this, I invite you to click the link and listen to two timestamps on each song: one at 1:20, and one at 3:40. With ONE exception ("Sky, Wind, and Waves"), the former is your average ride-cymbal beat, tender guitar plucks; the latter your cookie-cutter multi-layer guitar riffs in major keys, titanic drums - you get the idea. (In "Never Departing Shadow" the crescendo comes about 30 seconds earlier, and in "Home is Not a Place..." a little later, just in case Gumbo comes for my head.)

haha i never said it was groundbreaking!  It's very traditional and by-the-book, form-wise; I just think it's really well done.  I really like the guitar work in it, I think he's very creative in the way he composes his licks/phrases/movements/etc.  And yeah, I noticed the songs were all basically the same length, and most of them follow the same trajectory.  Usually something like that would turn me off, but for whatever reason with this project, I like the content despite the context being uniform. 

 

I know many of you guys appreciate the more.... mmm...  avant-garde stuff, I suppose?  I really could care less about that usually; it doesn't have to be breaking new ground for me to find value and enjoyment.  If I like how it sounds, we're good; form concerns usually come later I suppose.

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On 1/21/2018 at 10:53 AM, omik11303 said:

I respect individual tastes, but this one really has my scratching my head wondering what you hear in this. This album makes Collapse Under the Empire sound like Godspeed in their prime. Literally EVERY song sits at 5:30 ± :30, and I've never seen a band so egregiously milk the "start slow, then explode" post-rock archetype. For anyone that wants to challenge me on this, I invite you to click the link and listen to two timestamps on each song: one at 1:20, and one at 3:40. With ONE exception ("Sky, Wind, and Waves"), the former is your average ride-cymbal beat, tender guitar plucks; the latter your cookie-cutter multi-layer guitar riffs in major keys, titanic drums - you get the idea. (In "Never Departing Shadow" the crescendo comes about 30 seconds earlier, and in "Home is Not a Place..." a little later, just in case Gumbo comes for my head.)

I default to this mentality with anything that sends blood to Gumbo’s lil’ gumby, and seeing Don post “yeah, I would’ve bought this a decade ago” basically reinforces that stance.  You dig what you dig so there’s truly no “right” or “wrong” answers... but at risk of sounding too pretentious, it has way less to do with preferring “avant-garde” spins on the genre, and more to do with just being fatigued by the through-and-through approaches.  You’re allowed to enjoy bands that do not push the envelope, but some of us have been listening to that formula for over a decade and struggle to find any real merit in it today.  Burnt out.

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1 hour ago, Derek™ said:

I default to this mentality with anything that sends blood to Gumbo’s lil’ gumby, and seeing Don post “yeah, I would’ve bought this a decade ago” basically reinforces that stance.  You dig what you dig so there’s truly no “right” or “wrong” answers... but at risk of sounding too pretentious, it has way less to do with preferring “avant-garde” spins on the genre, and more to do with just being fatigued by the through-and-through approaches.  You’re allowed to enjoy bands that do not push the envelope, but some of us have been listening to that formula for over a decade and struggle to find any real merit in it today.  Burnt out.

I can understand that, because that's how I feel about jam bands today basically, even death metal too.  So maybe it's just a factor of me still being relatively new to post-rock; it's really been only like 3-4 years for me.  For me, the uniformity doesn't matter so much as whether it "gets there" for me and pushes the right buttons. 

Because it's interesting, there are some bands that I thought were incredible when I first got into the genre which I struggle to enjoy now.  Oddly enough, some of the Joy Wants Eternity material is like that for me.  I still love them, and some of their stuff is great, but some of it now I listen to now and it seems meandering and doesn't really "go" anywhere.  Another example of this is the band Glaciers.  I got both of those albums early on and I don't think I've spun them in like 2 years... it seems very basic and uninspiring to me now when you discover the likes of Caspian, Mono, Silent Whale, Of the Vine, etc, etc.  Those TSBB tracks still achieve liftoff for me with the climaxes, and I just love his chill guitar melodies.  So who knows haha. 

Just glad you guys listened!

 

Another new act I've been seen thrown around a lot lately is this:  https://fbts.bandcamp.com/album/story-of-collapsing-galaxies

 

They sort of make me think of Maserati meets Colaris.  Really spacey, heavy-groove post-rock.  Some parts are really brilliant and really exciting.  Other times the riffs seem very basic and bland.

 

One other new thing I'm fairly confident you guys will dig though is the new A Thousand Arms signing, a band called Girih from New Hampshire.  They're kinda like everything.  Elements of math, elements of post-rock, some heavy post-metal stuff....  kind of a moody blended mixture of it all.  I usually hate math rock too, but they use the elements in a tasteful way, rather than "Here's me tapping at 190bpm with stutters and glitches every other bar" kinda thing lol. 

 

 

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On 1/25/2018 at 8:00 PM, mrewest said:

New Cloudkicker song out of nowhere.  He literally wrote & recorded it today.  It’s like a taste of Beacons, Fade, & Subsume all smashed into a track.  I dig.

 

http://cloudkickermusic.com/track/not-to-scale-or-painted

This is how I prefer to write.... I hate writing, so I try to capture it all in one manic burst of creative energy.  I feel like it's more pure, in a way.  Granted, this may come from my predisposition towards Phish and the jamband world where spontaneous creation is part of the performance/concert. 

 

I'm really digging this 2nd riff section, the way he adds those top melody notes over top the jerky djenty riff.  The B-section of this song is give me huuuuge vibes of "One day.... all this.... could.... be yours....." from Oceansize before the 2nd djenty riff comes in.  The reverb on that snare is gnarly; makes me think of the production on "Low Tide" by Isis/Aereogramme the way that song disintegrates towards the end. 

 

This is very good!  I'm very curious what you think about that The Sun Burns Bright album, Evan.  I just went back to it again with everyone else's thoughts in mind, and I still love it; I still think it's beautifully-written stuff.  It's literally Exhibit A of post-rock, but I don't even care.  That's how I feel about that Heron album everybody flipped over last year, which to me was just okay.  It wasn't bad by any means at all, just didn't really move me much.  Taste is funny!

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On 1/19/2018 at 11:12 AM, Freki said:

Also, another recommendation that I haven't seen here. Watter, with ex-Slint and ex-Grails (or maybe current, not sure) dudes. On TRL.

 

https://watter.bandcamp.com

Holy shit, I'm listening to "This World" right now and man, this is good!  I like the Red Sparrows influence with the slide guitar.  They make me think of a mixture of Red Sparrows and like, Obscured By Clouds-era Pink Floyd.  Very good!!!

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20 minutes ago, mrewest said:

New Man Mountain album up for PO with a track released.  $25 shipped, 2 variants as options.

 

http://spartanrecords.limitedrun.com/products/609477

Yet another album that I really want, but can't justify at the price point. New song is great, very Audrey Fall-esque. If the /100 starts going fast I may have to cave.

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1 hour ago, omik11303 said:

Yet another album that I really want, but can't justify at the price point. New song is great, very Audrey Fall-esque. If the /100 starts going fast I may have to cave.

Yeah I shouldn’t be buying anything else right now but since seeing them at pre-Dunk I told myself I was gonna get their new album when it dropped.  I distinctly remember them playing that song & it was killer live.  I grabbed the smokey variant.

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@Gumbo72203  Making my way through The Sun Burns Bright now. 

 

EDIT:  Sorry @Gumbo72203, think you are on your own on this one.  That was about as cliche of an album as I've ever heard.  Everything from the band name, to the album & song titles are just like :rolleyes:.  And every song literally unfolded the exact same way with no real melodies or moments that stick in your brain.  I can't say it's just a flat out bad album, it's just so cookie cutter that I'll never revisit.  I'm honestly a bit surprised as well this one does it for you. 

 

I can definitely hear the Coastlands influence, but their music (recorded) is infinitely better than this.  It just seems like they sprinkled some of what works for them on a loaf of stale wheat bread lol.    I said (recorded) because after seeing Coastlands perform at Dunk, I'm honestly not surprised to see their name attached to this album.  Coastlands recorded was really good ambient post-rock with some climactic moments that weren't over done & accented their albums really well.  That's what I was expecting at Dunk, and I was really looking forward to their performance, especially as a come-down after End of the Ocean burned the place to the ground.  But I couldn't recognize a single song of theirs during their set because it was just this punch you in the face blurry wall of sound that made them sound like some bland post-rock band that just wanted to see how loud they could get for no good reason other than to be loud.  So coming off of that, I'm not too surprised that someone from that band would help produce an album that sounds like a dime-a-dozen post-rock band.

 

I hope new Coastlands material doesn't start to suffer from that.  And I'll forever be puzzled by that performance of theirs.  I even had some random guy come up to me before they played asking what they sounded like, and I adamantly told him something along the lines of "Oh yeah these guys are nice & ambient & will be a good palate cleanser".  Midway through the set I found the guy and apologized because I was so wrong haha.

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2 hours ago, mrewest said:

@Gumbo72203  Making my way through The Sun Burns Bright now. 

 

EDIT:  Sorry @Gumbo72203, think you are on your own on this one.  That was about as cliche of an album as I've ever heard.  Everything from the band name, to the album & song titles are just like :rolleyes:.  And every song literally unfolded the exact same way with no real melodies or moments that stick in your brain.  I can't say it's just a flat out bad album, it's just so cookie cutter that I'll never revisit.  I'm honestly a bit surprised as well this one does it for you. 

 

I can definitely hear the Coastlands influence, but their music (recorded) is infinitely better than this.  It just seems like they sprinkled some of what works for them on a loaf of stale wheat bread lol.    I said (recorded) because after seeing Coastlands perform at Dunk, I'm honestly not surprised to see their name attached to this album.  Coastlands recorded was really good ambient post-rock with some climactic moments that weren't over done & accented their albums really well.  That's what I was expecting at Dunk, and I was really looking forward to their performance, especially as a come-down after End of the Ocean burned the place to the ground.  But I couldn't recognize a single song of theirs during their set because it was just this punch you in the face blurry wall of sound that made them sound like some bland post-rock band that just wanted to see how loud they could get for no good reason other than to be loud.  So coming off of that, I'm not too surprised that someone from that band would help produce an album that sounds like a dime-a-dozen post-rock band.

 

I hope new Coastlands material doesn't start to suffer from that.  And I'll forever be puzzled by that performance of theirs.  I even had some random guy come up to me before they played asking what they sounded like, and I adamantly told him something along the lines of "Oh yeah these guys are nice & ambient & will be a good palate cleanser".  Midway through the set I found the guy and apologized because I was so wrong haha.

I think (hope) maybe your Coastlands experience was because it was a festival. I saw them about two years ago at a relatively small venue here opening for ITTCT and they sounded pretty good/it wasn't just a wall of loud.

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2 hours ago, The Ghost of Randy Savage said:

I think (hope) maybe your Coastlands experience was because it was a festival. I saw them about two years ago at a relatively small venue here opening for ITTCT and they sounded pretty good/it wasn't just a wall of loud.

Yeah I’m wondering if they just wanted to go balls to the wall because of that.  Just so weird because it’s the first ambient band I had ever actually started to like for that reason, yet we got none of that.

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2 hours ago, wisdom81 said:

The more I listen to this Man Mountain track the more I love it. The bassline is insane.

This song fucking rules so hard.  I can't get enough.  They livestreamed a show on the tour home from Dunk where they played this and like 4 other new songs.  It might still be on their Facebook page; I have it saved.  The sound was super good too.

I can't decide which variant I want, because they both seem cool.  I asked the band, and they said the /200 is White and silver with a stripe of clear down the middle, with black splatter.  That could be suuuuuper cool-looking.  I might cave and buy both.  Hooray for credit card debt...

 

2 hours ago, pemulis said:

Did anyone see Ricky Gervais mention we lost the sea in a tweet? It was a surreal moment when I saw it. I had to read it a few times to make sure what I saw was what I saw. 

Winning so hard!  We just had the Challenger anniversary too....  crazy. 

 

On 1/29/2018 at 3:02 PM, mrewest said:

@Gumbo72203  Making my way through The Sun Burns Bright now. 

 

EDIT:  Sorry @Gumbo72203, think you are on your own on this one.  That was about as cliche of an album as I've ever heard.  Everything from the band name, to the album & song titles are just like :rolleyes:.  And every song literally unfolded the exact same way with no real melodies or moments that stick in your brain.  I can't say it's just a flat out bad album, it's just so cookie cutter that I'll never revisit.  I'm honestly a bit surprised as well this one does it for you. 

 

I can definitely hear the Coastlands influence, but their music (recorded) is infinitely better than this.  It just seems like they sprinkled some of what works for them on a loaf of stale wheat bread lol.    I said (recorded) because after seeing Coastlands perform at Dunk, I'm honestly not surprised to see their name attached to this album.  Coastlands recorded was really good ambient post-rock with some climactic moments that weren't over done & accented their albums really well.  That's what I was expecting at Dunk, and I was really looking forward to their performance, especially as a come-down after End of the Ocean burned the place to the ground.  But I couldn't recognize a single song of theirs during their set because it was just this punch you in the face blurry wall of sound that made them sound like some bland post-rock band that just wanted to see how loud they could get for no good reason other than to be loud.  So coming off of that, I'm not too surprised that someone from that band would help produce an album that sounds like a dime-a-dozen post-rock band.

 

I hope new Coastlands material doesn't start to suffer from that.  And I'll forever be puzzled by that performance of theirs.  I even had some random guy come up to me before they played asking what they sounded like, and I adamantly told him something along the lines of "Oh yeah these guys are nice & ambient & will be a good palate cleanser".  Midway through the set I found the guy and apologized because I was so wrong haha.

Hey, I never said it was original!  I just love it.  It's like, perfect stereotypical post-rock for me.  Maybe that's what turns you guys off. 

I remember your Coastlands story, and yeah.... their set was way different.  I wonder if it was just their song choices...  I don't know their material well enough to know what they did or didn't play. 

 

 

Also, you guys would all be proud of me... I've been listening to a TON of Yndi Halda lately in preparation for their tour in a couple weeks.  Thankfully they're playing close-ish to my house.  "Golden Leaves From the Sun" is fucking sick.  Some of their stuff is a little too pastoral still for my tastes, they're kinda like the other side of the Godspeed coin in a manner of speaking, what with the violin.  Where Godspeed is doomy, urban, and meloncholic, Yndi is sun-soaked, breezy and rural.  I am certain they will utterly crush live, though. 

 

 

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On 1/29/2018 at 1:30 PM, omik11303 said:

Yet another album that I really want, but can't justify at the price point. New song is great, very Audrey Fall-esque. If the /100 starts going fast I may have to cave.

^This. They have made some very good music thus far (? 4 or 5 tracks), and if the rest of the album is stellar, I'll pick up a copy, whatever pressing. I think it's one of those situations if a better known band was releasing this, we'd be all over it, no matter the price point - but be grumbling a bit.

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4 hours ago, drds89 said:

^This. They have made some very good music thus far (? 4 or 5 tracks), and if the rest of the album is stellar, I'll pick up a copy, whatever pressing. I think it's one of those situations if a better known band was releasing this, we'd be all over it, no matter the price point - but be grumbling a bit.

Look for the video on their Facebook, I just watched it last night again.  It's from the Space Bar in Columbus... mid-October, after DunkUSA.  They play the new stuff, including "Memory Trace" which is in the 2-slot!

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18 hours ago, Gumbo72203 said:

Look for the video on their Facebook, I just watched it last night again.  It's from the Space Bar in Columbus... mid-October, after DunkUSA.  They play the new stuff, including "Memory Trace" which is in the 2-slot!

Gonna watch this today.  Shoulda gotten to Dunk a day early!  They killed it at that tiny-ass bar they played.  I think my brother & I were the only 2 there to actually watch them haha.  Bar was full of what appeared to be regulars & other band members (& that one Dunk rep).

 

Also, you posted about Yndi Halda.  I think I only casually listened to them once & it didn’t move the needle for me, but I just saw they were coming sorta near me to a venue I’ve never been to.  Gonna revist today & might consider that show.

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