Gregor Samsa - 55:12 (V0)

Sometime last week I posted Rest, an album by Virginian post-rock band Gregor Samsa. Well, I have to be honest. While Rest is certainly a fantastic album, it's not the one I would liked to have posted. I didn't come into this digital copy until last night, and so I thought I would share it with you all. Some of you might be familiar with Gregor Samsa's fusion of vocals and post-rock. If you aren't, then what this album is... it's second wave post-rock along the lines of Sigur Ros's now famous Ágætis Byrjun. While the other albums they released were slightly more subdued, this one is not lacking in its ability to captivate the listener. It has a higher energy than their other albums (especially Rest), so if you are completely wary of any sorts of crescendos or "walls of sound" then you might be more inclined to check out their other albums.

It's clear, as you listen to this, that Gregor Samsa sweats the details. The album was self-produced, as well as mixed by the legendary Brian Paulson, who has also worked with Wilco, Beck, and Slint. It's teeming with ambience, soaring sounds and breathy vocals, and it all seems to fit together like one of those little puzzles that you try to take apart and put back together.

The moral of the story is that if you ever wake up and find yourself transformed into a hideous bug-like monster that you should immediately start up this record and wait for your father.

Download here, buy it here.

Find Rest here and find 27:36 here.

Gregor Samsa - Rest (V0)

Hello, folks. Chances are you've realized there has been a lack of posting in the past two or three weeks, which is something that was probably due to the overwhelming period of time that is finals week. I hope everyone did alright, both high schoolers and college-goers know the pain that is finals. You can expect more frequent posts starting about now, because the ugly three-headed beast of a week is finally over for most kids.

So yeah. Gregor Samsa. Man. I've been on a Sigur Rós kick recently, and I have been lucky enough to find a similar band with a few more reservations about their sound. Gregor Samsa is a Virginian post-rock band who utilize dual vocalists to make a very mellow but powerful combination of slowcore and post-rock. Rest is a truly remarkable album full of intertwining melodies and sounds that will make your ears beg for more, and if you have the chance, look into their other albums, they are equally amazing. This isn't your typical crescendo-core, so if you're fresh off the Explosions in the Sky boat then this might be a good opportunity to branch off a bit.

Perfect music for the winter, hope all is well in your land, wherever that is.

Get this album here, and buy it here.

Also, I just realized that my fellow blogmate fauna posted another album by these guys sometime during the last month, so if you're intrigued please check that post out here.

Mimas - The Worries (V0)

Mimas are are a dark independent band from Denmark. Their sound is something like if you took the post-rock progression and intensity found in Godspeed You! Black Emperor and mixed it in a broken blender with 90's emo and a horrifying male post-surgery Tegan and Sara. I've heard people say they also sound like Sigur Rós's take on Built to Spill. They call themselves "death indie," which normally is grounds for being presumed annoying but it's okay because I heard their music before I read the description on their last.fm page.

Seriously though, these guys fuse vocals with post-rock in a way I wasn't really sure was possible before hearing them. It's almost like post-rock pop, and it's delicious.

And they don't skimp on the brass. <3. Download here, buy it here.

Gregor Samsa - 27:36 (V0)

For something so limited to be able to so powerfully transform a moment, for an arrangement of sounds to actually define an instant of space and time, a great deal of emotion and skill must be exerted. I urge you to download this, but wait until the appropriate time to listen to it. When you're alone in the dark, or looking at the sky at night, walking or driving through your town with someone else, staring at flickering lights in the distance, play 27:36, and let it change you.

Here.

Crippled Black Phoenix - I, Vigilante (V0)

I was actually shocked to hear that Crippled Black Phoenix was releasing a new album this year, in light of Mogwai's planned release for Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will and Electric Wizard's Black Masses, released appropriately the day after Halloween. Crippled Black Phoenix is a collaboration between the two bands, among others, and has put out some of the best and, unfortunately, least noticed music over the last five or so years, beginning with the astounding A Love of Shared Disasters.

I, Vigilante is an incredible album. Although it is only a short six tracks, less than an hour, it shines as an example of the ever-developing 60s-era psychedelic musicality that only musicians as skillful as Crippled Black Phoenix could replicate. Although their previous release, 200 Tons of Bad Luck, was almost strictly a tribute to Pink Floyd, their latest finds the UK supergroup using their unique skills and senses to create something entirely transcendent their influences, similar to Stardeath & White Dwarf's The Birth following their tour with The Flaming Lips.

Soaring, crushing and mesmerizing all at once, I, Vigilante is definitely one of the most unexpected and impressive releases this year.

Download here.

Anathallo - Floating World (V0)

Anathallo is a band who I easily could have seen in Chicago (they are based in the city for the most part) but due to my ignorance I chose to attend some other stupid event. I can't believe myself, they were playing with Why Intercept? at the time, another great Chicago act, but I think I went to a Valentine's day party or something.

Stupid me.

I missed out on a plethora of unique sounds, ranging from chains as percussion, brass sections, songs reminiscent of pop, post-rock and folk all blended together and even an autoharp.

Damn.

I also missed out on buying one of the best albums of 2006.

There's always next time, I guess. Oh wait, they're broken up.

Crap.

Download here, buy it here.

Epic45 - May Your Heart Be The Map (V0)

*ahem* This little thing is unrelated to what's inside the album, but is how I've decided to describe the tone and mood this album portrays:

We came across the trees just then. Finally, everything would be alright again. Finally everything would be good. I could think happy thoughts, and think of them for a long time. But the trees ended, the day persisted and the sun rained heat upon our skulls. This was the rest of our night. This was every night.
My heart was the only map we had, and we were lost and never coming back.

Download because this isn't an album where anything can be taken out of context, so you'll just have to get the whole thing to find out.

Warpaint - The Fool (V0)

After Warpaint's Exquisite Corpse was released on the Manimal Vinyl label in 2009, their small but devoted Los Angeles fanbase grew enormously. Warpaint has toured with several bands since then, including The xx and Akron/Family, probably the two best representatives of their genre-bending tendencies. The Fool is an exercise in everything haunting; I have heard few records this beautiful and blood curdling at the same time. Although postulations about the album of the year are typically imprudent and even at times overwrought, Warpaint stand a good chance of making their mark not only on this year, but, assuming that they keep releasing music like this, the coming decade.

Your brown eyes are my blue skies.
They light up the rivers that the birds fly over.

Low - Transmission EP (FLAC)

Transmission EP includes a cover by Low of the song Transmission, from The Peel Sessions 1986, released by Jow Division. It does great justice to both the legacy of Joy Division and to Ian Curtis himself. Transmission EP also features other unique works written by Low, perhaps in tribute to or in the spirit of Joy Division. This may be the best mix between the darkness of I Could Live in Hope and the clarity of Things We Lost in the Fire, and as a result it's highly recommended to anyone interested in Low, newcomers and old fans alike.

Radio, live transmission.
Radio, live transmission.

Listen to the silence, let it ring on,
Eyes, dark grey lenses frightened of the sun,
We would have a fine time living in the night,
Left to blind destruction,
Waiting for our sight.

Motionless - The Windmill EP (V0)

This EP was something I picked up from an old friend of mine in 2007, back when I was still going through my mainstream alternative rock phase. It sat on my shelf for about two years until more recently, when I discovered that I had neglected this unappreciated sliver of amazing post-rock for far too long. They are somehow still struggling to break free from popularity constraints and therefore they give their music away for free under a creative commons license, much like Andrei Machado's work, which I posted on this blog last Sunday.

The Windmill EP is simply post-rock with a touch of ambience, void of unnecessary crescendos, full of warm harmonies, delay-laden guitar and mellow piano sounds. They have a unique sound, at times delving into polyphonic rhythms and creating atmosphere upon atmosphere, and other times just letting the guitar say all that needs to be said.

The band seems to have stopped their creative output but they are still a part of Ericrock's label (along with The American Dollar, Gregor Samsa, Red Sparowes and Softer) so who knows what will happen in the future. They even played a show with Minus The Bear back in 2008.

Download here. Their music is free to share, but they have a very cheap merch store which can be found here. There are $2 posters, and for a dollar more you can get a FLAC copy of this wonderful EP.

The Flowers Of Hell - Come Hell Or High Water (V0)

Not really sure where to start with this one. When I heard about this album, someone told me that this was what it was like to hear colors. The Flowers of Hell were founded in the early 2000's by Greg Jarvis, a synaesthetic, whose "compositions and productions are largely based upon his timbre-to-shape synaesthetic visions."

I can't even begin to name the incredible people who collaborated on this album. Musicians from Broken Social Scene, Spacemen 3, Ecstasy of Saint Theresa, Guided by Voices, Patti Smith, and many many more all helped out and played with The Flowers of Hell over the past decade.

Come Hell or High Water is definitely one of my favorite albums from last year. Although until recently it was only available on What.cd, it has now made its way onto mediafire for all of you lovelies to listen to. This is one band that more people should know about.

The songs themselves are a combination of instrumental post-rock and psychedelic tones that evoke warm feelings and a sense of peace. This is one for the headphones, late at night, drifting through the moonlight.

Download here and buy it here.

Youth Pictures of Florence Henderson - Youth Pictures of Florence Henderson (V0)

"Hey pa, are them corns done growing yet?"

"I'm trying to pretend you don't exist so I can be happy."

I'm a bad listener when it comes to post-rock, and I genuinely dislike "rock" instrumentals, but thank god for you, Youth Pictures of Florence Henderson. Finally, some post-rock made for me, the average cynic. It's deep, it's depressing, it's post-rock, and the entire catch is that there are vocals involved occasionally, but for long enough periods of time for you to have something to grasp onto, and the amount of empty space created by the band leaves room for whoever is listening to fill in the gaps with melody or whatever they want to do with gaps in places (I hear some people like putting gross things in them).

Sample this, yo: Youth Pictures of Florence Henderson – I Think E.T. Is Involved In My Family

Download V0

P.S. If requested, I'll upload in FLAC.

Grails - Black Tar Prophecies Vol. IV (V0)

Grails are a band I didn't know about until recently, and I was already kicking myself pretty hard for not hearing this earlier when I gave their Black Tar Prophecies Vol. I, II & III its first listen. I had never heard such an experimental foray into post-rock quite like this. At times atmospheric and ambient, and at other times presenting itself with an energy that feels electric and eclectic, it gave me chills and made the hairs on the back on my neck stand at attention.

The first track, I Want A New Drug, leaves you really bewildered and inquisitive, and then it breaks into the epic building maze of a song that is Self-Hypnosis. I think they purposefully made the album vary drastically from one song to another, so as to keep the listener guessing, which is something that not enough bands (especially those of the post-rock variety) do these days. There's even a hint of blues rock in the aforementioned Self-Hypnosis. Pianos grace the beautiful atmosphere of Up All Night, almost creating a lonely feeling, offset by the dissonance found in blues and experimental music. It's almost like a self-conflicting album, in that the darkness and melancholic feel of the songs contrasts with the funky and psychedelic tone of certain songs. It's all I've been listening to since I got it, and I can't recommend it enough. You will feel like a satellite orbiting the earth, and you will feel your soul tingle.

Get it here and buy it here.

Ghastly City Sleep - Ghastly City Sleep (V0)

Ghastly City Sleep was something that also helped me get into post-rock at the end of 2008, which is odd, since Ghastly City Sleep is not your typical post-rock. In fact, it's probably not even post-rock. I picked this album up at a store for three bucks, and I still keep it in my car so I can listen to it whenever I want. And that's saying something, considering I only have about four CDs in my car. In Utero, Hospice, The Fruit That Ate Itself and this album. An odd collection, I know, but that's what I drive to, I guess.

To continue, this album might actually be an EP. It has four songs that all accurately portray the band's sound, incorporating several musical elements into all of their songs, ranging from ambient, alternative, post-rock, and at times shoegaze sounds. There are vocals on all the songs, sometimes whispery and light, and at other times impending like those of Dan Barrett from Have A Nice Life. In fact, the song Suchness gives me major Have A Nice Life vibes.

It's hard to describe the music in a small group of words, but if there's one feeling to take away from this description, it's ambient post-rock with vocals.

You can find the album here and buy it here.

.O.rang - Herd of Instinct (V0)

Godspeed You! Black Emperor are en route to a concert in Amsterdam when their plane crashes in a remote part of Africa. Fortunately, they all survive but most of their equipment is mangled, except for a keyboard and a couple guitars. All of the members suffered brain damage and now their only memory of music is one song: Taphead by Talk Talk. Later, while looking for help, they come across a local tribe. The tribesmen invite them to stay. That night, GY!BE is awoken by tribal drums and chants. They exit their tents to go witness this event. While watching this, they are given a small bowl filled with a foul smelling brown liquid. A tribesman keeps repeating the words, "Ayahuasca, ayahuasca!!" He then makes a motion of raising his hands to his mouth, indicating they are to drink the potion. The band decides to drink it. Time passes and eventually the ayahuasca has reached their brains and they are experiencing an out of this world psychedelic experience. They can feel the tribal drums inside of their soul. They quietly get up and go to get their keyboard and guitars and the one sole remaining amp that wasn't destroyed.

This album is a recording of what happened that night.

HṚṢṬA - Ghosts Will Come and Kiss Our Eyes (V0)

Ghosts Will Come and Kiss Our Eyes is the most recent release by Godspeed You! Black Emperor side project HṚṢṬA, founded by Mike Moya, who has also made contributions to A Silver Mt. Zion, Hangedup and Set Fire to Flames. HṚṢṬA features vocals from Moya, shorter song structures and less influence from the other founding members of Godspeed, like Sophie Trudeau and Efrim Menuck. It's interesting to see how much of the eeriness of Godspeed You! Black Emperor can be attributed to Moya, whereas the beauty and intensity are more as a result of the influences of Trudeau and Menuck, respectively. If your fan favorite is F♯A♯∞ or you liked the creaky, haunted ambience of Set Fire to Flames, this album is basically a direct relative of the two.

Download.

Bark Psychosis - Hex (FLAC)

The title of Bark Psychosis' Hex, the first album ever to be described as "post-rock," seems to be as simple a descriptor for it as possible; Hex is a mystifying and often baffling combination of instrumentals, varying musical textures, and Graham Sutton's quiet but foreboding and judicious voice. Each element is complemented by structure, and each relationship between these elements folds inward on itself as a song progresses. Listening to Bark Psychosis is an experience that can only be likened to hypnosis.

Get it in FLAC here.
Get it in 320 here.

Glissade - Further (V2)

I guess I can start with the last.fm description.

"Glissade creates a soundtrack to a dreamy and distorted version of reality by combining shoegaze inspired guitars & textural waves of sound. the tracks are both meditative and dramatic with melodies melting into a soothing and hypnotic ocean of atmospheric noise."

Shoegaze, for me, has always been about finding a more perfect atmospheric aesthetic, which is why bands like My Bloody Valentine and to a lesser extent Slowdive have not been so appealing to me as I've come to enjoy the genre. The shoegaze I like is often a mellow blend of post-rock and textures, sometimes even blurring the line between shoegaze and drone. Now, this album doesn't incorporate drone, but it is very atmospherically oriented. It's great to relax to, to think to, or even just to breathe to. It's not so willfully exotic in the way that trip-hop is, but it still manages to make you aware of yourself. Swirling melodies and whispered vocals.

All textual wanking aside, if you are a fan of shoegaze and ambient, this is something you will enjoy greatly. Can't recommend it enough.

Get it here.

Buy it here.

I'm not sure what they are up to nowadays, or if they're even still together. All I know is that this album is one of the most played shoegaze albums that I own.

Mooncake - Lagrange Points (V2)

Mooncake.

Ever since I heard GY!BE's Skinny Fists a couple years ago I've been fascinated with post-rock. If you saw the post I made about Sky Flying By a couple days ago, you might know that post-rock has genuinely shaped my taste as I've grown outwards towards more and more bands, constantly looking for new music and experiencing new emotions.

I remember it was raining, I remember I was walking home from school, and I remember this music.

The rest is blurry, but I remember seeing everything differently than I had before, like the ground and the buildings and the cars came alive, and like the sky was pouring this music down on me in conjunction with the rain.

It felt like the rain was speaking to me.

That's the power of this album.

If you like post-rock at all, there's a good chance that you'll enjoy this. If you like crescendo laden, spacey-yet-focused guitarwork and plenty of cello, then maybe you have a shot at enjoying this music the way I do.

Rain In The Ashtray

Download it here.
Buy it here.

Kayo Dot - Choirs of the Eye (V0)

Our eyelashes weaken with a weight that is sweet and fine,
And this feels like frogs and spiders in the sweet outside.
Tell me why world, unfathomable and good,
The beauty of everything is infinite and cruel.

An airplane, a puppet, an orange, a spoon,
A window, and outside
Stars and the moon.

Few artists are more musically, lyrically and instrumentally gifted than Toby Driver. Choirs of the Eye, Kayo Dot's debut album, is so incredibly diverse that it is a world unto its own. Each instrument, each word and note plays its own role; the phrasing is perfect, better even for its juxtapositions between brutality and serenity. What is so stunning about Kayo Dot is that, beneath each layer of incredible instrumentals, there is an even more incredible layer of meaning in Toby's lyrics. His words are profound, enchanting and mystical, whispering and seeking. Behind sensations of soaring, of crushing, of searching, there is always the reminder that these sounds are coming from someone, from something organic. Clear classical influences reveal themselves only to be swept away by contemporary rehashings, by innovation and reinvention. Each moment of Choirs of the Eye is just as compelling as the last, and each song ends so perfectly that you can't help but want to listen again.

Download.