Music landscape changes all time as new sound enters. In the mid 90’s math rock and post rock make themselves known. Steve Albini introduces his angular guitar playing and Slint publishes ‘Spiderland’, their second album. To then Led zeppelin - nirvana dominated rock scene, Shellac and Slint display larger dynamic, angular and epic soundscape. It was fresh. But slowly math rock and post-rock reach ornate and oversize sound. At cannonical peak works, they are either hyper active manic guitar playing or sedate textureless hallucination. This condition start to alienieate average listener. Shellac fan base for instance is not mainstream despite Albini’s influence. Math rock development in Shellac - Jesus Lizard - Don Cab/Bellini and Postrock Slint - Tortoise - Goodspeed - Explosion in the Sky are ripe for new phase.
If new soundscape is made of previous works lessons, combining wider styles, higher virtuosity, and novel instrumentation, the post-rock story is not over. In subtle ways, accoustic instruments have infused new work done by artists associated with math rock and post rock. Cheval De Frise, for instance, a math rock group from Bordeaux, France creates an odd line up of accoustic/electric guitars into their Don Caballero like work. ‘II’, from their last album, is a mysterious flamenco like math rock piece, projecting a melancholic acid dream sound with angry jagged guitar, pulsing accoustic fury interspersed with drips of percussians. Slower, Chiyoko Yoshida - drummer and singer for Chicago mysterious band ‘Sweeder’, also associated with June of 44 and Modest Mouse - brushes a songwriter voice over a sea of fuzzy electric, typical of post-rock. It’s gloomy and disorienting, as all her works are. Also from Chicago, Owen - Mike Kinsella who also plays in math rock group such as Cap’n Jazz and American Football - dives deep into songwriting and accoustic. The only trace typical post-rock sound left is a bass string and one stroke of electric guitar distortion. His song transforms into a lyrical accoustic ballad. And finally, Grace Cathedral parks completely fills the canvas with accoustic instruments reducing electric guitar to a mere equal in a lush garden of melancholic but majestic accoustic dreamscape.
The promise of what to come seems very exciting to me.
And thank you Delpine, the coolest gal in town, for helping me find Cheval De Frise. Enjoy the list.
“Accoustic Math Rock”
01. Cheval De Frise : II , la lame du mât (RuminanCe, 2005)
02. Tim Rayborn : Cuando El Rey Nimrod , The Path Beyond (Magnatune, 2003)
03. Chiyoko : Monsters , Cinematic (Boo-The-Cat Records, 2001)
04. Owen : She’s a Thief , I do perceive ( Polyvinyl Records, 2004)
05. Nina Nastasia : This Is What It Is , The Blackened Air (Touch & Go Records, 2002)
06. Grace Cathedral Park : play delicate, desire quiet , In the Evenings of Regret (La Verdad, 2004)
See also : Math Rock, Post-Rock
Image credit: strange_me, Hobo pd, foreversouls
if you are not a big math/post rock fan. Try nina nastasia and Grace Cathedral park, they are gentle and lyrical. (btw, nina nastsia is really a songwriter.)
some background songs:
Sweeder : Bells Lament (very pretty)
http://www.epitonic.com/artists/sweeder.html
Sweeder : Thread & Wire
http://www.sweeder.com/hear.html
Shellac : Watch Song
http://www.epitonic.com/artists/shellac.html
June of 44 : Of Information and Belief
http://www.epitonic.com/artists/juneof44.html
Explosion in the sky : Your Hand In Mine (w/Strings)
http://www.insound.com/mp3/mp3s.php?searchby=Explosions%20in%20the%20Sky
Godspeed You Black Emperor! : The Buildings They Are Sleeping Now
http://www.epitonic.com/artists/godspeedyoublackemperor.html
Comment by squashed — December 16, 2005 @ 12:00 am
thx
rock ‘n roll baby
please could you give the adress of the artist on flickr, where you fond the photos
it will be nice for the photgrapher if people visit his work
and it would be legal
(it’s almost a question of respect)
(there are photos under creative commons licence, could you choose some of these photos and add the name and the link :
thx
Comment by dana — December 16, 2005 @ 11:28 pm
Comment by dana — December 16, 2005 @ 11:28 pm
ok. it will take awhile tho, cause I have to find and click each single icon again. I really was using delphine’s catalog. I didn’t even click on larger picture, since I am looking for texture. Bad me, for neglecting credit. … I’ll do the other entry too.
Comment by squashed — December 17, 2005 @ 1:35 am
Sunday update:
Short nina nastasia interview (in french)
http://www.popnews.com/popnews/ninanastasiaitw/
Nina nastasia, NPR radio intrview
http://www.coolfer.com/blog/archives/2004/06/npr_covers_nina.html
Comment by squashed — December 19, 2005 @ 12:00 am
fmsound reviews Cheval
http://www.fmsound.net/NewReleases/Articles/Cheval%20de%20Frise/Cheval%20de%20Fris.html
Though forgoing a bassist in favor of a streamlined guitar and drums lineup seems to be the de rigeur move for any self-respecting indie rock band these days, don’t expect warmed over garage rock from these guys. Fresques sur les Parois Secrètes du Crâne (which literally translates as “Frescos on the Secret Walls of Cranium”) wastes no time in getting to, what to the untrained ear, sounds like atonal, random, and definitely challenging music. Bonvalet plays guitar like a more spastic Frank Zappa while Beysselance seems to vacillate between accompanying his bandmate and playing an entirely different song altogether. (I’m curious to know whether everything on Frenetic Records matches its namesake so well.) Song titles are essentially meaningless (and illegible!) since each song makes so many twists and turns, tempo and key changes that it’s hard to distinguish where one ends and another begins. The duo frequently stop playing altogether in mid-song as if to gain strength before launching into another fusillade of sound. Tracks veer from pleasant guitar melodies to crazed freakouts to hypnotic grooves and back and forth again numerous times in the space of a single song. The overall effect can be unsettling to say the least. A curious thing starts to happen, though, once you’ve steeled yourself in preparation of enduring the entirety of the disc – it begins to make some sort of strange sense. What previously seemed scattershot and anarchic suddenly seems tuned to some sort of inner logic. The two musicians are suddenly playing off each other as if they’ve worked together since infancy. Bonvalet’s guitar playing at times abruptly turns pretty (this is, after all, the instrument Segovia made famous) before becoming menacing – all without the benefit of a distortion pedal, mind you – while Beysselance almost (I said almost) turns jazzy before he goes completely nuts. What makes the album all the more amazing is that no effects appear to be added to the guitar and there’s very little overdubbing of the only two instruments employed. A third instrument does make an appearance on the titular track as well as “Phosphorescence De L’arbre Mort” though exactly what it is is hard to determine (damn French liner notes). My guess, though, is that it has strings and a bow and is being very much tortured. Maybe finding yourself in tune with Cheval de Frise’s particular form of madness is simply a case of spending enough time with the patients that their demented theories start to sound plausible but whatever the reason it’s best to at least give them a listen.
Comment by squashed — December 29, 2005 @ 7:15 pm