Mogwai Find New in the Familiar with ‘The Bad Fire’
Despite moments of overfamiliarity and some flat vocal experiments, Mogwai’s 11th studio record captures a band still reinventing their signature sound.
post-rock
Talk Talk Brought Fire and Negative Space to ‘It’s My Life’
When Talk Talk released It’s My Life in 1984, they shook the new wave establishment with great songs and a new approach, while refusing any genre boxification.
Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s Opus Remains Powerful and Prescient
Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven by Godspeed You! Black Emperor reminds us that sometimes the most powerful protest is (nearly) wordless.
Dirty Three Prove the Theory That Love Changes Everything
Dirty Three continue their long career of making organic, meditative post-rock jazz that always humbly approaches a single moment, without pretense or distraction.
MONO Recommit with Life-Affirming ‘Oath’
MONO return with a post-rock album about faith and commitment, which serves as a fitting epitaph for their long-term artistic collaboration with Steve Albini.
L’étrangleuse Find Artful Balance with ‘Ambiance Argile’
L’étrangleuse’s music draws from all sides of the Mediterranean and beyond, creating something new and categorically nebulous in a way that works well.
Desperate Times Call for Poetic Protest From Cyril Cyril
Cyril Cyril’s Le Futur Ça Marche Pas is for agitators, a genre-be-damned assemblage of poetry and vivid effects in the form of well-produced electronic rock.
Grails’ ‘Anches en Maat’ Takes a Cinematic Turn
Grails’ new LP is like listening to the soundtrack for an existential cosmic Western, Andrei Tarkovsky taking a stab at some Werner Herzog Mesoamerican mythologizing.
15 Years of Mogwai’s ‘The Hawk Is Howling’
The Hawk Is Howling is full of signature moments when Mogwai explore complex combinations of moods from bright to dark, soft to heavy, and sensual to horrific.
Explosions in the Sky’s ‘The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place’ at 20
The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place is Explosions in the Sky’s most acclaimed album, establishing themselves as figureheads of epic, instrumental post-rock.
Explosions in the Sky Reach Uncertain Denouement with ‘End’
Explosions in the Sky summon an oracular experience, opening sonic spaces full of emotion and empty of subjectivity that can be imbued with a listener’s meaning.
Grails Balance Their Scales: The Reckoning of ‘Anches En Maat’
Portland’s experimental post-rock kingpins Grails mark two decades since their debut with a new full-length retrospective LP and chat with PopMatters.