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Post-rock is a subgenre of experimental rock characterized by the exploration of textures and timbres as well as non-rock styles, often without vocals, placing less emphasis on conventional song structures or riffs than on atmosphere for musically evocative purposes.
- Bark Psychosis. Hex. (Circa, 1994) It seems fitting that our number one album should be Hex, the record which, as legend has it, was the first to be described as “post-rock”, in a review by journalist Simon Reynolds.
- Slint. Spiderland. (Touch And Go, 1991) Slint released the now-iconic Spiderland in 1991 while still a bunch of Kentucky nobodies. People couldn’t find out anything about them: by the time the album was released the band had split ways, meaning no interviews, and at a time where there was of course no internet for online sleuthing.
- Tortoise. Millions Now Living Will Never Die. (Thrill Jockey, 1996) With seven albums recorded over a 26-year career, Tortoise are practically establishment figures.
- Talk Talk. Laughing Stock. (Verve Records, 1991) Talk Talk spent the late ‘80s spending EMI’s money on the perverse dismantling of their glossy avant-pop formula, which had delivered them huge, and somewhat unlikely, commercial success earlier in the decade (who else on this list has written anything remotely as catchy as ‘It’s My Life’?).
Jun 14, 2021 · Beginning in the mid-1990s, a number of indie rock bands moved beyond traditional blues-based guitar riffs and introduced a new subgenre known as post-rock.
Jun 8, 2024 · In this exploration, we delve deep into the essence of post-rock music, its origins, characteristics, notable bands, and its enduring impact on contemporary music. Origins and Evolution. Post-rock emerged in the late 1980s and early 1990s, primarily as a response to the limitations and predictability of traditional rock and roll structures.
- Slint – “Don, Aman” (From Spiderland) 1991
- Tortoise – “Djed” (From Millions Now Living Will Never Die) 1996
- Mogwai – “Helicon 1″ (From Ten Rapid) 1997
- Dianogah – “What Is Your Landmass” (From as Seen from Above) 1997
- Dirty Three – “Distant Shore” (From Ocean songs) 1998
- UI – “Drive Until He Sleeps” (From Lifelike) 1998
- Tarentel – “Steede Bonnet” (From from Bone to Satellite) 1999
- Tristeza – “A Little Distance” (From Spine and Sensory) 1999
- Sigur Rós – “Svefn-G-Englar” (From Ágætis Byrjun) 1999
- American Football – “The Summer Ends” (From American football) 1999
I generally chose to leave the proto-post-rock bands off this list because including them would mean we’d have to stretch it back another ten years and fifty tracks, but leaving Slint off would be like not inviting Dave Mustaine to the Metallica alumni party. Slint’s Spiderlandcame out in 1991, so three years before the term post-rock was ostensibl...
It’s not an exaggeration to say that this song from Millions Now Living Will Never Die changed my life. To this day I struggle to articulate why. It’s 20 minutes longs; that was weird. The time signatures are all over the map. Instruments emerge almost imperceptibly then eventually pull the whole song in a different direction. It’s jaunty Krautrock...
I’ve been listening to “Helicon 1″ at least once a month (and in bad months, many times more) for two decades. Mogwai were/are the punk-rock offspring of My Bloody Valentine and Slint (though frontman Stuart Braithwaite claims he’d yet to hear the latter when he made this record). “Helicon 1″ is just one huge build that explodes into white noise be...
Just four songs into this thing and we’ve already got another one produced by Steve Albini, from Chicago trio Dianogah’s debut As Seen From Above. It doesn’t get more quintessentially post-rock than two bass guitars and a drummer playing hard-charging instrumentals, which is Dianogah’s M.O. The band still plays shows to this day. Righteous.
If you didn’t have a Dirty Three song on a mixtape someone had made you in 1999, then we probably couldn’t have been friends. Formed in Australia in 1991, the trio was ahead of its time in making melancholy chamber rock with guitar/bass/drums/violin, and became a fixture on the post-rock scene. Their moaning dirges exemplified just how expressive s...
Sasha Frere-Jones is best known as the pop-music critic for the New Yorker, where he once wrote a controversial essay about how predominantly white indie rock is, which believe it or not caused a stir when it came out (who would disagree?). I, however, will always remember Jones for his band Ui, which made three albums, the best being Lifestyle, fr...
Founded in 1995, San Francisco’s Tarentel got into electronics and droning as their career progressed, which I have no problem with, but when it comes to meat-and-potatoes, build-it-up-and-tear-it-down post-rock, it doesn’t get much better than “Steede Bonnet.” I first listened to this album on a Walkman (!) on a cloudless day on the roof of a buil...
Lest we forget that post-rock largely attracted groups of sensitive boys and girls who pioneered such fashion trends as thick-rimmed glasses and garish cardigans (I’m guilty on both counts), Tristeza remind us with their totally wimpy but soooo pretty music. Their name is Spanish for “sadness,” which is a bit on the nose but leave it to a post-rock...
Man, speaking of being on your own wavelength: Iceland’s Sigur Rós had their own language! Singer/guitarist Jónsi Birgisson sings in a vernacular he dubbed “Hopelandish,” plus he plays his guitar with a bow. The band’s second record, Ágætis byrjun, is as alien-sounding today as it was back then.
American Football are one of two bands on this list that were pretty squarely indie rock, but I’m including them because a song like “The Summer Ends” illustrates just how intense the conversation was between indie rock and post-rock around the turn of the millennium. That winsome horn melody over plucked guitars is a total post-rock move.
Post-rock was the dominant form of experimental rock during the '90s, a loose movement that drew from greatly varied influences and nearly always combined standard rock instrumentation with electronics.
Dec 19, 2016 · Post-rock is one of the most difficult genre descriptors to boil down to its essentials for a list like this. There’s no truly defining sound, just a mindset towards taking the raw materials...
