Nice Wings, Icarus! – Aurora

Nice Wings, Icarus!And now for some good news from Ukraine – Nice Wings, Icarus is a post rock outfit based there and they have two albums, both excellent, of their own brand of post rock. I’ve posted the first, self-titled one here before way back in 2010. Their more recent one, Aurora, is every bit as fantastic. Heavy guitar driven tracks peppered with violin melodies create a unique style that’s a pleasure to listen to. If you loved their first album, you’re going to love this one as well.

Nice Wings, Icarus! – Aurora

Arbor Lights – Hatherton Lake

A four-piece band that offers an excellent postrock release on bandcamp, Arbor Lights has worked on this release for two years. I especially like the name of the band – it makes me think of a stranger walking through a forest, noticing odd glowing orbs floating in the tree tops. This album just rolls along, seemingly nonstop, with five tracks clocking in at just over thirty two minutes. Starting out with an experimental noise type of sound, it quickly coalesces into a bright and rhythmic stroll through a deserted city block. Then it’s off to outer space and back, running the gamut of sonic textures in the process. It’s not too light – just the right amount of heaviness. The last track ties the whole album together nicely, and completes a total package of artistry that is very moving. One more thing – the cover art is perfect.

Name your own price (even free) but please consider supporting the artist.

Arbor Lights – Hatherton Lake

The Stereofox Collective: Post-rock vol. 1

The Stereofox Collective: Post-rock vol. 1Here is a superb collection of postrock tracks from Stereofox, a fantastic music resource that deals many different genres from electronic to punk to hip hop. This collection features artists who do postrock just the way I like it – not too light, lots of motion and far-away sounding, heavy guitars. These rocking songs are like postrock was back in the day when I first stumbled across it, back in the days of bands like The Big Sleep and Milhaven.  If you like driving, heavy, instrumental more info

postrock then you should drop by Stereofox and give a listen. Also, explore the rest of the Stereofox site – there are tons of great tracks there to listen to.

UPDATE – There is a track here that is definitely not “family-friendly”, which is how I like to keep this blog. I intended to pull this post when I got home tonight, but on second thought I’ll leave it with the warning. Sorry folks – completely my fault. I got lazy and did not do my due diligence on the first couple of listens.

The Stereofox Collective: Post-rock vol. 1

Sora Shima – Destroy Electronica

Sora Shima - Destroy All Electronica (cover art)A beautiful post rock record, Sora Shima offers five tracks of melodic and slightly severe music, cleanly produced – this doesn’t sound like bedroom studio quality stuff. Starting with a monster of a track, clocking in at over 9 minutes, the album goes in all sorts of directions, yet neatly ties everything together – even barely venturing into electronica itself with the breakbeat in track #4, Hello Big Sky. The last track is an almost minimal sounding drone of texture that reminds me of the surface of a cold. barren planet for some reason. Track #3, Calor Humano, is one of the best tracks I’ve heard so far this year. The chord progression does something for me, and the strings are an excellent choice of instrumentation for it. There is a little bit for everything here, and it’s a free download if you want, although I would recommend supporting the artist and offering at least a couple of dollars. Really, Sora Shima deserves it for the work and effort that was put into the production of this release.

Sora Shima – Destroy Electronica 

Blossom – Blue Balloons

Mellow guitars start this release out, but it doesn’t take long for the nicely mellow breakbeat to show up. Blue Balloons is reminiscent of Revolution Void and Boards of Canada, though not as all over the place – these tracks are more structured, and would be perfect background for some trip-hop vocals. I especially love the big fat square bass synth in my favorite track from the album and that is track 5 – Nightbeat. All in all, this is an excellent release, one of the best I’ve heard this year.

Blossom – Blue Balloons