| Post-rock | |
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| Cultural origins | Early 1990s, United Kingdom, Canada and United States |
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Post-rock is asubgenre ofexperimental rock that emphasizestexture, atmosphere, and non-traditional song structures over conventional rock techniques. Post-rock artists often combine rock instrumentation and rock stylings withelectronics and digital production as a means of enabling the exploration of textures, timbres and different styles. Vocals, when present, are often used as an instrumental layer, with many bands opting for entirely instrumental compositions. The genre began inindie andunderground music scenes, but deviated.
The termpost-rock was coined by music journalistSimon Reynolds and popularized in his review ofBark Psychosis' 1994 albumHex. He later expanded the concept as music "using rock instrumentation for non-rock purposes". The term has since developed to refer to bands oriented around dramatic and suspense-driveninstrumental rock, making the term controversial among listeners and artists alike.
Groups such asTalk Talk andSlint are credited with producing foundational works in the style in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The release ofTortoise's 1996 albumMillions Now Living Will Never Die led to post-rock becoming an established term for the genre in music criticism and journalism. In its second wave, post-rock diversified into subgenres, influencing indie rock,electronica, and certain forms of metal.
Post-rock emphasizes the use oftextures,timbres, and non-rock influences, often featuring little or no vocals. Rather than relying on traditional song structures orriffs, it—as a musical aesthetic—focuses on atmosphere and mood to create a musically evocative experience.[1][2] Post-rock incorporates stylings and traits from a variety of musical genres and scenes, includingindie rock[3] and its forms likeslowcore[4] andmath rock, as well askrautrock,ambient music,psychedelia,progressive rock,space rock,tape music,minimalist classical, BritishIDM,jazz (includingavant-garde jazz andcool jazz),dub,[1]post-punk,free jazz,contemporary classical and avant-garde electronica.[5]
First wave post-rock groups often exhibited strong influence from the krautrock of the 1970s, particularly themotorik, the characteristic krautrock rhythm, and its one- or two-chord melodicism,[1][6][7] with these influences also being pivotal for the substyle ofambient pop, where the framework of post-rock is applied toindie pop.[8] Post-rock acts frequently blend traditional rock instrumentation and stylistic elements withelectronic and digital production, using this combination to explore a wider range of textures, timbres, and musical styles.[1][9][10] The genre originated in theindie andunderground music scenes of the 1980s and 1990s, but as it moved away from traditional rock elements, it became increasingly distinct from the conventions ofindie rock of that era.[10][1]
Though typically performed using standard rock instrumentation—guitars, bass, drums, and keyboards—post-rock compositions often subvert the expected uses of these instruments, for example by employing guitars as noise generators or focusing on sonic texture rather than melody.[11] However, instruments were often used in non-traditional ways, acting as a "palette of textures" rather than for their conventional rock roles.[12] It can be lengthy and instrumental,[13] containing repetitive build-ups of timbres,dynamics and textures,[9] often making use of repetition of musicalmotifs and subtle changes with an extremely wide range of dynamics. In some respects, this is similar to the music ofSteve Reich,Philip Glass andBrian Eno, pioneers of minimalism who were acknowledged influences on bands in the first wave of post-rock.[6]
Guitars, rather than serving melodic or riff-driven purposes, are often employed as tools for texture and atmosphere.[9] Artists manipulate timbre through alternate tunings, effects likedelay anddistortion,EBows, andlooping, sometimes processing guitars to the point of becoming unrecognizable.[14] Drums and percussion in post-rock frequently defy traditional roles,[15] drawing inspiration from krautrock's hypnotic "motorik" beats[16] and dub's spacious, bass-heavy rhythms.[15] It can feature, as is prominently the case in the first wave, multipledrum kits, irregulartempos, and/or minimalist patterns that prioritize mood over groove.[17] The bass guitar often assumes a central role in shaping post-rock's atmospheric depth, diverging from standard rock's rhythmic lock with thebass drum, extending frompost-punk.[18] Influenced by dub and ambient music in addition, basslines may consist of sustained drones, pulsating loops, or sparse, resonant notes that anchor the composition's harmonic framework, differing from thewalking bass trope of conventional rock.[15]
With the increasing accessibility ofsamplers in the late 1980s, bands drew inspiration from contemporary electronica and experimental electronic music to restructure their compositions withsampling.[19] Samplers, along withsequencers andMIDI setups, allowed for both ordered and chaotic elements to coexist within a single piece.[9] The recording studio is regarded as an essential component of the creative process in post-rock.[20] English acts such asDisco Inferno,Insides,Seefeel andThird Eye Foundation made therecording studio an active component of composition, employing hardware for live processing and sampling, and software likeCubase to sequence tracks, fragmenting and reassemble guitar sounds and vocals as abstract sonic material over drum patterns and beats.[9]
Vocals play a much lesser role in most post-rock and are sometimes entirely absent. When post-rock bands have vocalists, their performances are often non-traditional, with them employing vocals as purely instrumental efforts and incidental to the sound.[1] Vocals are often presented asspoken word, foundaudio samples, or stylized delivery such as murmured or shouted passages.[21] Bands often treat the voice as an additional instrument.[22] Lyrics, if included, are often non-narrative, poetic, or opaque,[23] reflecting themes of alienation, ambiguity, or abstraction.[24]
While theverse-chorus form is not exempt from the ethos of post-rock, in lieu of typical rock structures, groups make greater use of soundscapes and abstraction.[22][11] Reynolds states in his essay "Post-Rock" fromAudio Culture that "a band's journey through rock to post-rock usually involves a trajectory from narrative lyrics to stream-of-consciousness to voice-as-texture to purely instrumental music".[25] Songs in the genre can include climactic endings alongside buildups of textures and timbres, used to provide closure in otherwise linear compositions. This structural trope became a hallmark of second wave post-rock,[11] where bands focused on dramatic, suspensefulinstrumental rock; this usage of the term became controversial among both listeners and musicians.[26][27]
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The termpost-rock was first coined by the English music journalistSimon Reynolds in aMelody Maker article in late 1993, which is the earliest instance of him using the term.[28] He later employed it in a review ofBark Psychosis' 1994 albumHex, published in the March 1994 issue ofMojo.[29] Reynolds further developed the concept in a May 1994 issue ofThe Wire, defining post-rock as "using rock instrumentation for non-rock purposes, using guitars as facilitators oftimbre and textures rather thanriffs andpower chords". He further expounded on the term that:
Perhaps the really provocative area for future development lies [...] incyborg rock; not the wholehearted embrace ofTechno's methodology, but some kind of interface between real time, hands-on playing and the use of digital effects and enhancement.[9][30]
Reynolds, in a July 2005 entry in his blog, said he later found the term not to be of his own coinage, writing in his blog "I discovered many years later it had been floating around for over a decade".[31] In 2021, Reynolds reflected on the evolution of the style, saying that the term had developed in meaning during the 21st century, no longer referring to "left-field UK guitar groups engaged in a gradual process of abandoning songs [and exploring] texture, effects processing, and space", but instead coming to signify "epic and dramatic instrumental rock, not nearly as post- as it likes to think it is".[27]
The earliest use of the term cited by Reynolds dates back as far as September 1967. In aTime cover story feature onthe Beatles, writer Christopher Porterfield hails the band and producerGeorge Martin's creative use of the recording studio, declaring that this is "leading an evolution in which the best of current post-rock sounds are becoming something that pop music has never been before an art form".[31] Other uses of the term include its employment in a 1975 article by American journalistJames Wolcott about musicianTodd Rundgren, although with a different meaning.[32] It was also used in theRolling Stone Album Guide to name a style roughly corresponding to "avant-rock" or "out-rock", the latter of which became synonymous with post-rock during the first wave.[31] Alternately, an April 1992 review of the single "Stacey's Cupboard" by 1990snoise pop bandthe Earthmen by Steven Walker in Melbourne music publicationJuke describes the song as a "post-rock noisefest".[33]
In music journalism and criticism, various retroactive examples have been given of precursors to post-rock. For instance, with regards to the 1960s and early 1970s in music, the "dronology" ofThe Velvet Underground, most apparent on their 1967 albumThe Velvet Underground & Nico, was referred to by Reynolds in 1994 as having significantly influenced much "of today's post rock activity" in the first wave, especially with regards to the 1990sspace rock revival.[34] Theexperimentalelectronic rock bandSilver Apples have also been described as an influence,[35] and Germany'skrautrock scene which includedCan,Neu!,Faust andCluster later influenced post-rock acts likeStereolab[36] andMogwai.[35][37]
Thepost-punk andno wave movements—via acts likeSonic Youth,Glenn Branca, andUt—experimented with dissonance, non-linear structures, and noise, challenging rock's expressive norms.[38] Similarly,This Heat, which formed in 1976, are regarded as having predated the genre with their significantly unconventional musical stylings and repetitive structures, and were an influence on bands in the first wave of post-rock.[39][40][41]
Stylus Magazine observed thatDavid Bowie's 1977 albumLow, produced byBrian Eno, would have been considered post-rock if released twenty years later.[42]Louder also described the English post-punk bandWire as "the genre's godfathers", highlighting their 1979 studio album154 as an early precursor that signposted the beginning of post-rock.[43]
British post-punk bandPublic Image Ltd have been seen as pivotal for post-rock, with theNME describing them as "arguably the first post-rock group" when referring to their first few albums.[44] Their 1979 albumMetal Box almost completely abandoned traditional rock structures in favor of dense, repetitive dub- and krautrock-inspired soundscapes andJohn Lydon's cryptic,stream-of-consciousness lyrics. The year beforeMetal Box was released, PiL bassistJah Wobble declared that "rock is obsolete".[45]
Critics have retroactively regarded theLouisville, Kentucky-based rock bandSlint's 1991 albumSpiderland as a foundational work that anticipated and inspired the indie rock-derived area of the genre;[46] the album is characterized by its dramatic shifts in dynamics both instrumentally and vocally, as well as its deliberate, bass-driven grooves.[1][21] The Englishart rock bandTalk Talk's albumLaughing Stock, released in the same year, has been identified as influential on post-rock by critics for its drawn out song structures, relying on influences from jazz, contemporary classical music and space rock.[1][10]
Post-rock was initially applied to a wave of primarily English bands in the early 1990s who drew from genres such aspsychedelia,electronica,hip-hop,free improvisation, and theavant-garde.[9] Examples includeStereolab,[47]Moonshake,[48]Laika,[49]Disco Inferno,[50]Seefeel,[10] Bark Psychosis,Pram andInsides,[9] many of which began in post-punk andshoegaze roots; these were largely deemed post-rock as such in Reynolds' music journalism,[9] and they were also pivotal for the substyle of ambient pop.[8]
In the late 1990s and early 2000s,Bristol, England, emerged as a notable hub for post-rock, characterized by a loosely connected group of musicians working with home-recording setups and a distinctlylo-fi aesthetic.Trip hop, which began as a scene in the same city, influenced Bristol post-rock in the turn of the millennium. Bands such asMovietone,Crescent,Flying Saucer Attack andThird Eye Foundation were central to this movement, initially releasing music on the local Planet label and gathering aroundRecreational Records before later partnering with Domino Records.[51] North American post-rock tended to maintain the traditional rock band format, drawing on earlier experimental andavant-rock traditions while retaining the indie rock band form.[52] Influences included space rock, krautrock, minimalism, theCanterbury scene, and no wave, as well as the work of composers such asJohn Cage andAlvin Lucier.[52] Bands from theKranky label likeLabradford,Bowery Electric, andStars of the Lid, are often cited as foundational to both the American first wave of post-rock and the space rock revival of the 1990s. Reynolds remarked in a November 1995 issue ofThe Wire that these American bands were "rewiring rock according to the legacies of European space rock, avant jazz and Ambient sound design [sic]", counterculturally in contrast to "the spent forces ofGrunge and lo-fi [sic]".[53]
In 2000,Radiohead released the studio albumKid A, marking a significant turning point in their musical style. Reynolds described it and the 2001 follow-up albumAmnesiac as major examples of post-rock in the style that had been established by the first wave, incorporating influences from electronica, krautrock, jazz and space rock into the band's indie rock music; he noted that the success of the albums showed that the style had made a mainstream breakthrough.[54][55]
The second Tortoise albumMillions Now Living Will Never Die made the band a post-rock icon according to music critics,[10][56][57] with bands outside the city such asDo Make Say Think recording music inspired by the Chicago school (also referred to as the "Windy City school").[58]John McEntire of Tortoise andJim O'Rourke ofGastr del Sol were prominent figures in the scene, with McEntire being a member ofThe Sea and Cake, and both musicians also contributing as producers on multiple albums by Stereolab throughout the 1990s and 2000s.[59]
In the early 2000s, the term became divisive with both music critics and musicians, with it being seen at the time as falling out of favor.[60] It became increasingly controversial as more critics outwardly condemned its use.[1] Some of the bands for whom the term was most frequently assigned, including Cul de Sac,[61][62] Tortoise,[60] Mogwai,[26] and Godspeed You! Black Emperor[63] rejected the label. The wide range of styles covered by the term, they and others have claimed, robbed it of its individuality.[64] Kenny Bringelson, writing forConsequence, commented that the bands' music is "rife with creative recontextualization and categorically fresh sounds, but rarely does it transcend what's defined as, and cool about, rock music."[46]
An eminent post-rock locale wasMontreal, Canada, whereGodspeed You! Black Emperor and related groups, includingSilver Mt. Zion andFly Pan Am, released music onConstellation Records;[21] these groups are generally characterized by a melancholy andcrescendo-driven style rooted in, among other genres,chamber music,musique concrète techniques andfree jazz influences.[6] Notable albums from Montrealer bands includeF♯ A♯ ∞ (1997) andLift Your Skinny Fists like Antennas to Heaven (2000), both by Godspeed You! Black Emperor,[65] andSet Fire to Flames'sSings Reign Rebuilder (2001).[21]
As part of the second wave of post-rock, the bands Godspeed You! Black Emperor,Sigur Rós, Mogwai,Explosions in the Sky,65daysofstatic,This Will Destroy You,Do Make Say Think, andMono became some of the more popular post-rock acts of the new millennium.[66]Sigur Rós, a band known for their distinctive vocals, fabricated a language they called "Hopelandic" (Icelandic:Vonlenska), which they described as "a form of gibberish vocals that fits to the music and acts as another instrument".[67] With the release of their albumÁgætis byrjun in 1999, they became among the most well known post-rock bands of the 2000s due to the use of many of their tracks, particularly their 2005 single "Hoppípolla", in TV soundtracks and film trailers. These bands' popularity was attributed to a move towards a more conventional rock-oriented sound with simpler song structures and increasing utilization of pop hooks, also being regarded as a new atmospheric style of indie rock.[68] Following a 13-year hiatus, experimental rock bandSwans, who had been regarded as influencing post-rock, began releasing a number of albums that were described as post-rock, most notablyTo Be Kind, which was acclaimed byAllMusic at the end of 2014.[69]
Wider experimentation and blending of other genres took hold in post-rock. For instance, bands such asCult of Luna,Isis,Russian Circles,Palms,Deftones, andPelican fusedmetal with second wave post-rock, with the resulting sound being termedpost-metal.Sludge metal grew and evolved to include (and in some cases fuse completely with) some elements of post-rock, with this second wave of sludge metal being pioneered by bands such asGiant Squid andBattle of Mice. The labelNeurot Recordings has released music by bands in this genre.[70] Similarly, bands such asAltar of Plagues,Lantlôs andAgalloch blend second wave post-rock andblack metal, incorporating elements of the former while primarily using the latter.[71] In some cases, post-rock experimentation has extended beyond blending with a single genre—such as in post-metal—to embrace a wider range of influences. A notable example isblackgaze, a fusion of black metal and shoegaze, post-rock and post-hardcore, exemplified by bands likeDeafheaven that combine intense metal elements with the atmospheric textures of post-rock.[72]
Enter 'blackgaze', the buzz term for a new school of bands taking black metal out of the shadows and melding its blast beats, dungeon wailing and razorwire guitars with the more reflective melodies of post-rock, shoegaze and post-hardcore.
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