Gespenst-The Bloodline

Pay close attention, readers.  Today we are featuring a year-plus old album that qualifies as another undiscovered gem.   How I found out about today's record was via a recent release from Fluttery Records, which we will feature on the next installment.  Today's post is an apt lead-in to what we will be talking about next.

It can be difficult to come across great music from the East, but this definitely qualifies. 

Gespenst was founded in Kuala-Lumpur, Malaysia by brothers Syahmi and Zuhair Rawi.  This is the first Malaysian group of any genre music I have found, which makes this record unique in a different way.

As it turns out, there is plenty unique about this disc.  This is not your standard-fare post-rock sound.  While it does feature loads of stretching atmospherics, generous helpings of keyboards and pianos, it also offers huge, chunks of guitar riffing and plenty of tasty leads.  This disc also features sparse vocals, and by sparse, I mean rarer than those found on your average Sigur Ros disc. 

What I love about this album is that, in addition to stretched melodies and eerie ambiance, it features rock beats that you can nod your head to.  Gespenst puts the rock back in post-rock.  Some bands are doing this nowadays--think recent releases by If These Trees Could Talk and Exxasens.  This is a somewhat new development in post-rock which is actually more of a nod to the old-school styles of post rock from stalwart bands such as Mogwai and Godspeed You! Black Emperor. 

Although this is a short album, clocking in with seven tracks averaging around five and half minutes in length, it is something I am really digging.  I'm glad I found out about the subject of our next installment, because it led me right to Gespenst.  This is a fantastic record that I can recommend again and again, even if you are not a fan of post-rock.  Thanks to Gespenst's bandcamp page, we've got the full album stream ready for you to feast your ears on.  Enjoy!

Exxasens-Eleven Miles review

This post sort of fits into our occasional randomness bits, where we like to explore new music by tagging a certain band we have been following.  This has evolved into a fun little series as well.  Where this post differs is that I will be offering a full album review of the new release I have discovered.

Exxasens has an interesting band name.  I am often not a fan of gibberish band names, but for some reason the letter 'x' says hard core.  If then, your band name includes back-to-back 'x's, it screams 'fear me' from the top of some place very high.  I actually kind of dig that.  That said, this band's name is probably not complete gibberish and has a very real, easily definable origin.  Though I'm not hept to such an origin, I stand by my comment that I kind of like this band's name.

This band brings a certain sound quality that is similar in some respects to If These Trees Could Talk, but instead of wallowing in screeching guitar leads bent on scrambling the brain of the average listener, Exxasens add a certain flair of mainstream hard rock and even some metal riffing from time to time.  This makes for a very diverse listener that had me wondering a time or two if my iTunes player had suddenly switched to playing Pelican.  Don't get me wrong--indeed Exxasens doesn't sound much like Pelican at all, except for the some proggy moments scattered throughout the album. 

One of the latter tracks even introduces a sludgy, repeating riff and rhythm without so much as hinting at doom.  I'm not much into sludge metal, but I found myself enjoying that track just as much as all the others.

As with most post-rock albums, there are no vocals to speak of, unless you count the understated, barely audible spoken word segment on the final track of this album.  In retrospect, the beginning of the last track seems to qualify as filler material, but the band makes up for it by concluding with a cascading crescendo that is both uplifting and crushing.

I downloaded this release after listening to half of the first song, because I knew I had found something I would enjoy.  In my mind, this is right up there with the wonderful If These Trees Could Talk album, but also showcases something more, something few post-rock bands dare to touch on.  Below is the full album stream, courtesy of the Exxasens bandcamp page.  Thanks for reading and enjoy!