 An article by Jordan Volz 40. Mice Parade | Mokoondi
Adam Pierce's Mice Parade has been a constantly evolving force since its inception. Tertiary album Mokoondi is a coalescence of Pierce's previous stylistic inclinations; a mix of jazz, folk, and electronica forms the base of the album and results in a wondrous sound that is admirably smooth and consistent. Understandably, Mokoondi doesn't live far from the Chicago post-rock sound of the nineties, but it is purposefully less rock-oriented than the average post-rock album. Tortoise is perhaps Chicago's best representation of its dynamic fusion of styles, but whereas the turtle likes its rock music, Pierce is more interested in acoustic instrumentation and leaves his kraut at home. As a result, Mokoondi is a chilled album that defies the stereotype of laid-back albums by exploring a wide variety of styles and sounds . It's engaging, blissful, challenging, and just downright enjoyable. Key Tracks: Open Air Dance; Mokoondi; Ramda's Circle. 39. Electrelane | Rock it to the Moon
England's Electrelane comes in somewhere between blissed psychedelia, tumultuous surf rock, and a twisted horror film soundtrack. Rock it to the Moon is a daring and caustic mix of sounds that teeters close to spinning out of control on several occasions, as closer "Mother" will surely testify, but a soft touch also underlies much of the work. "Many Peaks" divides the disc in two and illuminates the band's skill at contemplative, restrained music, and in this context the rest of the album sounds like a relentless search to seek out the boundaries of the audience's patience. Some may find such a backhanded approach to be disrespectful to the listener, but, on the contrary, Electrelane is merely pushing its rock compositions past their breaking points and into the non-rock ravine. It's here where true genius is discovered, and amidst the thrilling guitar, electrifying synth, and other random noises, Electrelane finds greatness. Key Tracks: Blue Straggler; Many Peaks; Mother. 38. Sugar Plum Ferry | Lack of Something
Unbeknownst to most, Taiwan had a thriving indie rock scene at the turn of the century, and Sugar Plum Ferry was the leading act among the post-rock crowd. Debut Lack of Something chronicles the early years of the band and celebrates the guitar-based instrumental rock style that became popular in the new millennium. Full of infectious melodies and unrestrained energy, Lack of Something is quick to draw the listener into the album and does not let go easily. Openers "A One-Person Sewer" and "Eine Glowworm Nachtmusik" go right for the throat and Sugar Plum Ferry really hits its stride on "Nightmare Lunchbox" and "No More Soundtrack." There's no denying that Sugar Plum Ferry has a strong grasp of the post-rock dynamic and knows how to craft thoughtful, engaging music. Were it more active during the last decade, there's no reason to believe it couldn't have contended with the likes of Mono and Explosions in the Sky for being the new face of post-rock. Key Tracks: Eine Glowworm Nachtmusik; Nightmare Lunchbox; No More Soundtrack. 37. World's End Girlfriend | Farewell Kingdom
Whereas later World's End Girlfriend albums would be focused on the concept of fusion, Farewell Kingdom is an album of contrasts. Underneath the surface we can see the trademark WEG sound that would later be fully realized on albums like The Lie Lay Land -- delicate modern classical compositions merged with spastic electronics and blistering noise -- but Farewell Kingdom is the album of an artist still in his experimental phase and yet to hit upon his winning combination. In some regards this makes the album all the more charming; stamped with the innocence of the aspiring artist, it's difficult not to cheer at every turning success and feel the heart wrench at every misstep. Behind the scenes there's a method to the madness of WEG, and even at this early stage, Farewell Kingdom is constructed with such deliberate craft that it must be declared a triumph of composition. Key Tracks: Fragile Fireworks; You; Onepiece. 36. Below the Sea | The Loss of Our Winter
Few bands have been as sublime as Below the Sea. The Canadian trio transitioned from shoegaze to ambient-jazz-tinged post-rock, and every album demonstrated a different aspect of the band's dynamic (perhaps due to a few shifts in the lineup), but the overriding characteristic of BtS was always been the blissful, carefree tone of the music. The Loss of Our Winter is arguably the most straightforward of the trio's three albums, but that's not to say it's without its share of hits. On the contrary, "Tropic of Cancer" scores an early victory by hitting a smooth groove and subtly easing in a cello during the rising action. Repetition is a common device employed by Below the Sea, and it's often used to wrap the audience in a hypnotic trance while tiny bits and pieces of the sonic landscape are changed and moved around, seemingly unnoticed. Other tracks venture pretty far into classic post-rock territory, such as "I Dreamt of Idaho," with its brooding ambience, audio samples, and military drumming. At first it might feel odd to place such overt tracks next to a tranquil work like "Rue Bromont," but eventually the pieces settle and it all makes sense. Key Tracks: Tropic of Cancer; I Dreamt of Idaho; Between Stratas. 35. Four Tet | Pause
When Sam Jeffers and Adam Ilhan imposed a hiatus on Fridge to attend college, Kieran Hebden put his creative efforts into a solo project that would become known as Four Tet. Several years later Fridge was back in action and better than ever, stunning crowds everywhere with the magnificent Happiness, and Hebden's solo work was gaining quite a following as well. Pause ups the ante from debut Dialogue, furthering the exploration of "organic electronica," which, if nothing else, demonstrates that Hebden is one artist who knows just as much about modern music as the listener. Both in his solo work and the material recorded with Fridge, Hebden is a musician who fights the urge to look at the sheer complexity of modern independent music and fall into a isolated stupor. Rather, he is one of the few who sees the cracks in the walls and patches them up with a hybrid of styles that would be impressive even to the most avant-garde of musicians. Pause isn't without its own flaws, but Four Tet's ingenuity is hard to ignore. Key Tracks: Glue of the World; Everything is Alright; You Could Ruin My Day. 34. The Burning Paris | Coral City Ruin
Boston's The Burning Paris only released one album (Coral City Ruin) and one EP (And by December You Will Know Where Your Heart Truly Lies) during its four years of existence. Taking into account that the band was twice re-formed, first as On Fire, then as Eksi Ekso, it has been a consistently potent force in the northeastern USA over the past decade and has influenced acts such as Caspian and Sparrows Swarm and Sing. The band's debut introduces the world to TBP's post-rock, an updated version of the lo-fi variety cum vocals ala Bark Psychosis or Talk Talk. The meat of the album is the standard drum, bass, guitar setup, but strings often make an appearance and add a needed layer to the mix, as well as counterbalancing the infrequent vocals with its classical connotations. The band does get loud and does get serene, but avoids tags of epic and beautiful en route to creating an album that sidesteps the well-beaten, glimmering post-rock path with something a little closer to reality. Key Tracks: Winter Street in Winter; Let's Watch the World Collapse; Coral City Ruin. 33. Jon Hopkins | Opalescent
At twenty one, before working with Brian Eno, Massive Attack, and Coldplay, Jon Hopkins dropped his debut album, Opalescent. Although much was made of the producer's classical training on piano, Opalescent isn't a modern classical work. Hopkins became enamored with synthesizers during his teens, and this led him to explore the chilled worlds of trip-hop and downtempo electronica, which clearly made quite the impression upon the young mind and pushed his music away from his childhood training. Opalescent is an album that is oddly informed yet strangely synergistic. Some tracks could be described as new age music, whereas others fall into the ambient electronica camp. In reality, Hopkins' music lies somewhere in between, as it is nostalgic for nineties-era electronica but also fits into 2001's musical cannon without standing out in the slightest. In a way, Opalescent is the precursor to a sound that would be perfected several years down the road on Helios' Eingya, but here it shows the ambitions of a young man with a plethora of talent. Key Tracks: Halcyon; Fading Glow; Inner Peace. 32. Loscil | Triple Point
Scott Morgan's Loscil project was at the forefront of the group of musicians bridging the ambient and electronic genres at the turn of the millennium. Before bringing additional musicians into the studio on First Narrows, Morgan was a rare commodity -- a solo musician who was equally gifted in the electronic and ambient arts and had an intuitive understanding of how to fuse them. Triple Point's vague subject matter (the sub-atomic world) is an ideal topic for Morgan's efforts, as this is an area where space and energy are locked in a continual struggle for balance and harmony. Thus, Morgan serves up tracks that differ in energy levels -- some barely move from their initial position, failing to fight off the cosmic freeze of absolute zero, and some become quite lively with specialized rhythm sections. Time is a recurring element across the length of Triple Point, and even though it is destined to be the victor amongst the sub-atomic chaos, an hour's worth of Loscil might be just what's needed to enforce a stasis. Key Tracks: Ampere; Discrete Entropy; Vapour. 31. Set Fire to Flames | Sings Reign Rebuilder To set fire to flames must be akin to fanning the flames or throwing gasoline on the flames -- in other words, to escalate an already dangerous situation. Applying this idea to the music created by this Montreal collective gets tricky, for rarely does it take so many musicians to forge such an enigmatic, nondescript album. But therein lies much of its appeal: the circus of musicians present on the album completely removes ego from Sings Reign Rebuilder and creates a collaborative effort that is faceless and willingly morphs to adapt to a violent and inhospitable sonic landscape. Some may pin down Sings Reign Rebuilder as an abstract album, but to do so would be a disservice to the rich thematic and narrative qualities of the work; indeed, Set Fire to Flames has a rather interesting story to tell, but opts to do so in an unorthodox fashion. The end result is a double disc of music that is hard to describe, but ever so easy to love. Key Tracks: Omaha; Steal Compass/Drive North/Disappear; Shit-Heap-Gloria of the New Town Planning... |
