During a cursory scan of Bandcamp’s post-rock tag, I came across this rather solid compilation which features tracks by such impressive artists as Adolf Plays The Jazz, Hior Chronik and We.own.the.sky.
Post-Rock
[Music] Qualia – Lost
I think ‘cinematic post-rock’ would be an apt way to describe Qualia, a great instrumental rock band led by Dan Leader, who works out of Cambridge, England.
[Music] Raphael Weinroth-Browne – Worlds Within
Ladies and gentlemen, I have to be admit to being a bit thrilled to mention this release. Some time ago, I reviewed a band called Flying Hórses, a band Raphael Weinroth-Browne was a member of, and whose stunning work on the cello made the album so memorable for me.
On January 24, he will release a new album which balances post-rock, contemporary classical music and the most tasteful aspects of metal. It would have never occurred to me to blend such aspects together, but Raphael weaves things together masterfully.
[Music] MIKROMATIQUE / Jan-Dirk Platek – Samt | Inner Silence
This particular release by German composers Jan-Dirk Platek and MIKROMATIQUE clocks in at just over five minutes, but it’s a very worthy post-rock, post-ambient, post-modern classical work.
Consider following Platek on Bandcamp. Every now and again, he offers his whole catalog for a very low price, and he tends to release gems.
[Music] Silent Island – Stormvalley
I want to thank István Csarnogurszky, guitarist of Silent Island and musician in several amazing post-rock bands, for this new little gem of an album. His guitar playing is as fluid as ever, and as much as I like instrumental guitar albums, Csarnogurszky is ably supplemented by Gábor Károlyi on bass guitar and Mike Vecchione, who provides drum loops.
Dense, but not overwhelming. A very pleasant album to think to, but it can take you places if you want to concentrate solely on the music.
[Music] Necromishka – The Space Between Us
This is another weird, nearly terrifying, yet wonderful work from the nexus of musicians floating around Tel-Aviv and involving Tamar Singer.
Necromishka continue the neofolk tradition, mixing it with some of the hallucinatory vibe which gave early Current 93 its power. The vocals in Beast of Prey, for instance, are slowed down to something so eerie that they should have belonged to a character in a David Lynch movie.
The other tracks give the feel of the soundtrack that should be made, if anyone is insane enough to try it, of Isadore Ducasse’s ur-Surrealist masterpiece, Les Chants de Maldoror.
[Music] Various Artists – 1+1=X
A hearty congratulations to Erased Tapes who turn 10 years old this year. This compilation features 20 exclusive tracks from their mighty roster, and not one is a disappointment.
1. Qasim Naqvi – Brutal Moderna 04:18
2. A Winged Victory For The Sullen – Long May It Sustain 04:20
3. Rival Consoles – Ritual Song 05:10
4. Nils Frahm – Frau Dehlholm 03:05
5. Daniel Thorne – Iroise 05:47
6. Daniel Brandt – Blackpool Sands Forever 05:11
7. Douglas Dare – Darling 08:13
8. Michael Price – Eyn Hallow 04:17
9. Kiasmos & Högni – Zebra 03:43
10. Ben Lukas Boysen – Pending 04:44
11. David Allred – Ahoy 04:49
12. Anne Müller – Bel Tono 03:30
13. Lubomyr Melnyk – Palisade I 17:03
14. Hatis Noit – Inori 04:44
15. Masayoshi Fujita – Spaceship Magical 04:05
16. Högni – Máni 03:56
17. Peter Broderick – The Perpetual Glow 05:23
18. Arthur Jeffes & Nils Frahm – Up Is Good 05:35
19. Daniel Brandt – Blackpool Sands Forever (Rival Consoles Remix) 04:27
20. Penguin Cafe – Wheels Within Wheels (Greg Gives Peter Space Remix) 06:09
[Music] Stray Theories – All That Was Lost
Stray Theories, the monicker for Micah Templeton-Wolfe, resides in New Zealand, though he was born in Australia. n5md Records found a cinematic post-rock masterpiece in this release.
[Music] Various Artists – Planeta Post-Rock: Flama
Planeta Post-Rock is a (you guessed it) post-rock label out of Portugal. So far, from what I gather, they have made four compilations, with Flama being their most recent. It was released on April 1, so it’s all of a few days old, and it paints a great picture of what the post-rock and post-metal scene must be like old Lusitania.
If you feel like purchasing the whole catalog for 3 Euros, click on this link here.
[Music] Various Artists- Heresy Records: A Map Of The Kingdom Of Ireland
Though not as long in the tooth as INA-GRM nor as exotic as the scenes in places like Egypt or Iran, it seems that Ireland has developed a venerable electroacoustic music scene which has spanned over five decades. This compilation, A Map of the Kingdom of Ireland, a compilation of Irish Electro-Acoustic music featuring works by Ireland’s most celebrated Electro-Acoustic artists, was released on March 2, 2018 by Dublin, Ireland-based Heresy Records, is quite a gem of not only electroacoustic music, but of pure, non-theoretical music of many stripes, including contemporary classical and even new wave/post-punk.
The comp starts off gently with a cut by Paul Morrin. It is a bit like a boat taken off its moorings, and drifts along until about the two-minute mark, when the tempo changes to something a bit more lively and focused – one could even say it has a post-rock feel to it, reminding me a bit of the band éf.
Tóirse Ó Ríordáin comes up next with something that feels slightly like an early Penguin Café Orchestra piece if it were composed somewhere near the border of Brazil and Colombia.
It is Daniel Figgis’ piece, Timothy Cream’s Crown of Wines, which really gets into a more freeform composition, referencing avant-garde music and perhaps Krautrock. There is a lilting, marching quality to the composition which allows one to drift off into the ether while.
Even freakier are the two pieces turned in by Dublin mainstay Roger Doyle. This is a bit away from the avant-garde – this feels more like a cleaner, more updated sound referencing Tangerine Dream. As my old Kraut friends would say, “sehr Kosmisch…”
The fun surprise of the compilation for me were the two tracks included by Princess Tinymeat (a reference to actor Montgomery Clift’s… er… shortcomings in the boudoir, I’d imagine). His (her?) back catalog is screaming for a re-release, as I haven’t come across this name since I was collecting cassettes in the late 1980s.
Finally, Spooky Ghost gets a mention for some of the most pleasant guitar work I’ve heard since Vini Reilly was in peak form with the Durutti Column in the early 80s.
There isn’t a duff track on the compilation. If you find this collection enjoyable, you may want to also consider purchasing On The Nature Of Electricity & Acoustics, another remarkable compilation curated, this time, by Figgis.
Track Listing
1. Compass – Paul Morrin
2. Atop D’Seefin (Educution remix) – Tóirse Ó Ríordáin
3. Timothy Cream’s Crown of Wines – Daniel Figgis
4. Avant Garde Your Grille – Deep Burial
5. Little Train To Heaven – Richard G. Evans with Daniel Figgis
6. Eighties Rampwalk – Roger Doyle
7. Sleep Circus (remix) – Paddy Hunt vs. Charles
8. Richard Harris Blesses The Dawn Flotilla At Guilvinec – Cathal Coughlan with the Grand Necropolitan String Band
9. Finale from The Room In The Tower – Roger Doyle
10. handsinmyhead – GREETINGS
11. DriftDin – Vincent Doherty
12. Arcticus – Donald Teskey
13. Your Majesty – Princess Tinymeat
14. Stutter – Spooky Ghost
15. Unscan Ó Malley – Tóirse Ó Ríordáin
16. MegaMix – Princess Tinymeat
17. Wandering Compass – Paul Morrin
* The digital version of the album includes the following four tracks
18. Old Piano – Vincent Doherty
19. Reverse – SOM
20. Audacity – Deafector
21. Rampwalk – Roger Doyle / Olwen Fouéré
A Miscellany Of Tasteful Music 