"Post-Rock"

Carl

Carl

or Varl
is a Senior Staff Member Alumnusis a Smogon Discord Contributor Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnusis a Past SPL Champion
So I'm starting to like this whole post-rock thing and would like to explore the genre a bit more. I've been listening to a lot of Explosions in the Sky and Godspeed You! Black Emperor and I did get some Slint though I'm not sure they're what you'd directly label "post-rock." Anyway, what else should I be looking into? Feel free to start from the top.. Excuse my vagueness.
 
65daysofstatic are my favorite post-rock band. They take elements of math rock and electronica in their music though, so I'm not sure if that's what you're looking for. The Fall of Math and One Time for All Time are worth checking out anyway.

If you enjoy EITS, go ahead and get The Ascent of Everest - How Lonely Sits the City and Mono - You Are There. Yndi Halda - Enjoy Eternal Bliss is also good post-rock; most people say they are "a more positive GY!BE".

Also, check out Sigur Ros if you haven't already.
 
I'm not a big fan of all of their work, but Young Team - Mogwai is pretty amazing.

And if you like GY!BE i'd definitely get the new Silver Mt. Zion [leaked/torrent/whatever] blindblindblind off of there is amazing.

The only other thing that came to my mind was Battles, but i'm not 100% sure if that's what you're looking for. I have mirroed by them and it's great.
 
Mogwai - Happy Songs for Happy People is pretty good imo; haven't listened to their other albums to compare it to but it's alright in my book.

Can't really give much more as I too listen to EitS, GY!BE and Battles (like JTH said), so good luck~!

edit: Along with g80, get Sigur Ros if you haven't. ( ) and Takk... most likely.
 
Yeah, so I listen to all that stuff, plus Red Sparowes and M83 and Loss of a Child and etc.
 
the newest Envy album is very post-rock if you're into the whole "emotive hardcore" thing, its actually such a killer album

also theres bands like Pelican, Jesu, Red Sparrows and that sort of thing, they're a little different i guess but still killer
 
Post Rock is sort of varied, it can associate itself with neoclassical bands like Rachel's or Clogs, or with harder stuff like Red Sparowes.

If you like GY!BE, then A Silver Mt. Zion is good for you, especially their first two releases. Do Make Say Think is an option if you like Explosions in the Sky. I only own one of their albums, Winter Hymn Country Hymn Secret Hymn, and it's really good.

If you're trying to explore more on the classical edge too, then I recommend Rachel's - Systems/Layers, Clogs - Lantern and Bell Orchestra - A Tape the Colour of the Light are great to try out.
 
65dos is the only post rock band I listen to, the genre is mostly pretty boring for me but their songs are usually pretty good for background music. Had the chance to see them live actually but it was them or Sonata Arctica and you can guess which band I went for... Uh... was going to suggest GY!BE and friends, but it says your post that you've listened so lol.
 
Sigur Ros is the best in that style imo. Explosions I also dig. I find Godspeed to be boring.
 
Hrsta and Fly Pan Am are two great 'post-rock' bands including members of Godspeed. Hrsta's Stem Stem In Electro is an excellent album.

Do Make Say Think's newest album 'You, You're A History In Rust' is one of the best post-rock albums of all time imo.

No one's mentioned Set Fire To Flames yet, so I guess i'll be the first. SFTF are another group that include members of Godspeed, but I personally think that SFTF are better than Godspeed. 'Sings Reign Rebuilder' is another album I would call one of the best.

M83 and Loss of a Child, like DM has mentioned, are great too. M83 have a kind of electronic feel to their music, while Loss Of A Child are really just amazing, and I guess you coul compare them to Explosions in the Sky at a stretch, and all their music is free too.

Caspian and This Will Destroy you are a couple more, lesser-known, amazing post-rock bands.
 
There is this band I've been listening to for a while its called As The Poets Affirm. They're pretty good although lesser known than all the other Post-Rock bands. They usually incorporate lots of instruments into their songs while maintaining this sort of "harmony" for a lack of a better word. You should give them a listen if you're ever in the mood for some mellow tones.
 
0mastar said:
Do Make Say Think's newest album 'You, You're A History In Rust' is one of the best post-rock albums of all time imo.
Click to expand...

This is so not true >:(. Winter Hymn etc has always sounded better to me.

Anyway, it's sort of hard to compare Set Fire to Flames to GY!BE, but whatever. I agree with that suggestion though, their sound is really lo-fi and experimental and uses a lot of tape recordings from police cars, to streat preachers, to wooden board squeaks. Sings Reign Rebuilder is IMO their best and has great tracks like Steal Compass/Drive North/Disappear and Love Song for 15 Ontario (w/ Singing Police Car). Still can't believe I forgot to mention seeing this CD is on my avatar, but I guess 0ma has his uses now!

Anyway, I remembered couple more stuff. 1 Mile North, who CAN be compared to EitS, but it's much much more melodic, so it has a really ambient feel. Minor Shadows is almost an ambient album without even being ambient. Give In 1983 He Loved to Fly a try. World's End Girlfriend is barely post rock, but its electronic souns made from multiple samples is a pretty good listen. I recommend The Lie Lay Land as the first album you should listen to and consider Give Me Shadow, Put on my Crown its best track.

Edit: Gregor Samsa. Post Rock with Shoegaze vocals. Try out either 52:12 our their selftitled EP. Young and Old = pure love.
 
This is a genre I've been exploring a bit more recently as well, so this is a great thread! Notable bands not yet mentioned include:

This Will Destroy You
The Samuel Jackson Five
Upcdowncleftcrightcabcstart

I am a huge fan of the likes of Jesu and Pelican, though they are invariably much harder than most of the post-rock genre. If you give them a listen, however, and enjoy them, I'm going to recommend Alcest's debut album that came out last year (I think this was a Sanders rec). I played some of it on my radio show and would give you a link but the recording got fucked up somehow.

Uhhhhh... As you get closer to the Shoegaze spectrum you come across bands like Yume Bitsu on K who are really fantastic.

I don't think Sigur Ros really fits in well with what has come to be known as 'post-rock' as defined by Godspeed, but I'm pretty sure you already listen to them anyway. Takk... begins to verve into pop terriory and notsomuch the 'post-rock' feel.

I'd talk about the GY!BE sidebands, but I find most of them are just inferior Godspeeds, though Set Fire to Flames does stand out.

Aaaaaah...

Gregor Samsa is a band that I've been looking for for sometime but can't find a copy of their records (ahemtradingahem). If you're going to talk about World's End Girlfriend you need to talk about Grails too who have both been getting a lot of hype in certain communities in certain times.

Oh and Winter Hymn is better than You, You're History.
 
I don't know, I don't think post-rock should have such a strict definition. And also Takk also still embodies many post-rock qualities, like the crescendo and decrescendo techniques, and the use of instruments as musical timbre.
 
I definitely agree with you that it embodies a lot of post-rock ideals, but honestly when I think of post-rock the whole GY!BE aesthetic is first and foremost in my mind which tends to balk from the whole verseversechorusverse structure which a lot of the songs on Takk... do contain.

I'm going to go listen to Takk... again.

Oh, and I forgot one of my favourite post-rock bands.

Sickoakes are incredible.
 
Yeah I've been listening to it for most of the rest of the day, and I'm having trouble backing up my own claim, with Saeglopur being the clear best example of it.

So I will retract that statement.
 
theBM, Gregor Samsa are definately a good band, more on the emotive hardcore side of things in my opinion.

I would make a thread about "emo" but im scared of ignorant people ruining the topic. Or if anyone even likes emo here.
 
tl;dr

psychophobia I love emo (Indian Summer, Hoover, Orchid, Saetia, City of Caterpillar, La Quiete, Ampere and much more)

anyway on post-rock, I wanted to make a thread about it a long time ago but I didn't know how many people were interested

Post-rock started as an umbrella term for bands which happened to use rock instrumentation for non-rock purposes: I like Bark Psychosis and Flying Saucer Attack from back then, but they're spacey droney shoegaze stuff that might not be for everyone. Slint started the guitar-based post-rock side, Spiderland is a must listen album. Looking back, Talk Talk were a new wave whose last two albums are direct ancestors of the movement. Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock deserve to be checked out.

The pillars of post-rock now seem to be bands like Mogwai, Explosions in the Sky and Godspeed You! Black Emperor. From these, EITS are probably the easiest listen for anyone really and they're really good at what they do. Any album will do since they really sound all the same. Mogwai take Slint's sound, they're really noisy at times but also produce ridiculously beautiful songs like Ratts of the Capital. Young Team is an essential and probably their most consistent album, but I prefer to just listen to spare tracks from throughout their discography. GY!BE are on a league of their own really, some of the most magnificent music ever made. It might appear boring until you really look at it and notice the beauty of everything that goes in the making of every composition.

Then the namedropping begins. Do Make Say Think somehow manage to be original (yes this is really hard in this genre) and definitely should be checked out. Mono sound like they are between EITS and Godspeed but they're one of my favorite bands. Moonlight is an excellent song. A Silver Mt. Zion, Hrsta and the rest of the Constellation Records roster are mostly related to GY!BE (well they have a ton of members after all) but all have different takes on the sound. This Will Destroy You and Yndi Halda are top notch, EITS-like bands that also retain some originality. Now, Joy Wants Eternity are an almost blatant ripoff but they have something that makes me like them.

The genre now has a lot of bands that sound nothing like what the post-rock definition was, they're mostly just instrumental rock bands. Not to say that is wrong. Laura and God is an Astronaut make short, easy to take in songs that sound really nice. The American Dollar follow a similar vein. Foxhole and We vs Death use brass (!) if you're into that. Caspian's first EP will rock your face off, their full length not that much. El Ten Eleven is a guitar/drums duo that pretty much kicks ass. Maserati have been around for a while but their latest album (the only one I checked out) was a great listen. I wouldn't call 65daysofstatic post-rock, a lot of their songs actually sound much more like a hardcore band to me (well, minus the vocals and plus electronics), but they are great and also very original.

On the metal side of things there's Pelican in the forefront, followed by Tides and the much less heavy Red Sparowes. Gregor Samsa has shoegaze elements in their sound and are definitely worth listening to. Slow, moody music. New album coming out soon!

Well that's all I guess, this post is really large lol. Also I realize I've mentioned a lot of bands already listed in this thread but I guess this could also help other users interested in the genre.
 
I definitely don't want to hijack the thread, but i'd love to learn of some more good hardcore/post-hardcore/grindcore

edit: And as far as post-rock goes, I remembered one of my favorites [Tortoise] and thought you might want to check them out
 
JTH I can honestly tell you that you only need to listen to one band

http://www.myspace.com/wearedangers
easily one of the best hardcore punk bands around right now.

other hardcore punk bands definately worth checking out;
Go It Alone (from my hometown of vancouver)
Blue Monday
Verse
Ceremony
Modern Life Is War
Cursed
Shook Ones
The Helm
Ghostlimb
Trap Them


as for grindcore I dont listen to much but i can definately recomend these bands
Graf Orlock
Assück
Backstabbers Inc.
 
I would definitely mention Jesu on the metal side of things, even if just for Conqueror which is an absolutely fantastic album.
 
Uh is Lightning Bolt considered post-rock? Genres are ridiculous. Hypermagic Mountain is one of my favorite albums, so if they are, yeah, get that.
 
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