Enough of all the frivolity, its time to get some moody on.
Post Rock has never been a term that's appealed to me, though inevitably I have had to brandish it in my writings a few times, as it gets the point across succinctly. The following two spooky little gems could well be thrust into that overly stuffed envelope, alongside everything from Tortoise to HDU, Slint to Sigur Ros, Bark Psychosis to Jakob.. precisely the reason why the term irks me. Hanyways, like all of the above (and yes I do btw) London's Kontakte and California's Alps (curiously both 3 pieces) make a pleasing, gentle racket, that isn't hung up on over-conventionality, and thrives on space and drama, using predominantly the same instrumentation as presumably pre- or present-rockers do.
Kontakte's split single, 'Motorik' on Mind Exodus Recordings earned them a Record Of The Week at Manchester's marvelous Piccadilly Records, and the snip of audio was enough to pique my interest. It was definitely a hunch worth following as 'Motorik' is a right grower and it's placed their clunkily-titled album on Drifting Falling Records, 'Soundtrack To Lost Road Movies' (which even sounds good on a myspace player) on my list of wishy type things for when that Lotto ticket comes in.
Check all three of them playing it loive like...
I bought it from Piccadilly who are wonderful but you can't link to individual records on their site, boo hoo.
You can also (Buy)from here and do read their excellent shop review of said title.
(Web)
(Kontaktespace)
The Alps, who claim San Francisco and New York as their geographical locators, first got me on the google when I clocked "A Manh Na Praia,'the opening cut from their recent 'III' album on Type Records. Further investigation revealed one of the three peaks of the Alps was none other than Alexis Georgopoulos, who not only sounds like he should be in a George Pelecanos novel (a good thing, in my book) but also used to be in Tussle (when they were fire), and operates under the sneaky synthy pseudonym ARP, for Norway's exemplary Smalltown Supersound label. Furthermore as one half of the DFA signed outfit, Expanding Head Band (with Bing Ji Ling's, Quinn Luke), this serial band-member is at least partially responsible for one of 2008's finest remixes and my picks of the year, that being the throbbing re-rub to the Shocking Pinks corker 'Cutout'. He is joined by Scott Hewicker (ex-Troll) and Jefre Cantu-Ledesma (Tarentel), and together they concoct a spooky, often spacey, atmospheric brew, that makes the most of the sumptuous production and time and space possibilities. After only a couple of weeks, 'III' (apart from a couple of wayward contributions) has been placidly mowing my musical lawn , here's the graceful 'Cloud One' to whet your appetite, and whats more you can buy it direct from the label (nice!) Though I couldn't work out how to do that easily, so there's an alternative too.
(Buy)
(Or Buy)
(Alpsspace)
There was more on this tip, but time eludes me and it'll wait... it's like that with this gear. This post was bought to you by the overuse of brackets (I'm a serial offender (no really) (I am)).....
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