#dunk!

What’s in the box?  Not, as one might reasonably expect from the concept, Gwyneth Paltrow’s head. Instead, a lucky 77 will receive 7 7″ records and 37 will also receive 7 pieces of ephemera: a shot glass, cigar, matches, poker deck, pair of dice, poster and shirt.  On the flip side of the 7″ records, listeners will discover 7 songs that are available only in this form; no digital copies exist.…

Milan’s ten-strong post-rock collective Goodbye, Kings has just produced its finest document yet, a gorgeous two-track, 45-minute album that takes listeners on a literal journey; or in this case, two. Transatlantic // Transiberian is travel music in the finest sense of the word, in that the album reflects travel by sea and by rail, and is also music to accompany a trip – even if only a car…

The album begins with a single, soft crunch in the woods, followed by a second of silence and a plunge into “Sudden Peril.”  The listener is already under assault: no time to breathe, only to run, and to try to figure out one’s bearings on the way.  It doesn’t help that the map to the Oscillating Forest is printed on the cover, as the topography is always moving, and there are too many creatures…

It should be obvious that FOUR is SEIMS‘ fourth album, but it’s not that simple.  SEIMS – originally a solo project – made a turn toward its current direction with the release of 3 and 3.1 a year and a half apart, eventually merged as 3 + 3.1.  In these recordings, Simeon Bartholomew began to move beyond the electro-prog of his first two releases (guess what they are called!) to post-rock prog.…

We Lost The Sea ~ Triumph & Disaster

The world is ending.  We all know it.  While writing this review, I learned that the American president had just allowed corporations to pollute water again.  After all, who needs clean water?  Who needs animals (save for those that taste good)?  Who needs humans?

The album is apocalyptic, taking the form of a fairy tale.  A mother and her son are living out their final day on Earth.  Sydney’s We…

Can a post-rock band be both massive AND melodic? Absolutely.  This is the arena of Indianapolis (Indiana) quartet Pillars, who live so close to October’s POST! festival that they can sleep in their own beds.

“Dissolution” was the album’s lead single, an all-out stormer as well as a highlight of the recently reviewed sampler Open Language Volume IIII.  The power of this majestic piece sent us…