Kolya - Kolya

2001; 10 tracks

That cover reminds me of a certain Slowdive cover... forgetting the name at the moment.

Kolya were a midwest band who created this full-length and two EPs in the late 90s/early 00s. As stated elsewhere (just, elsewhere), it's a Slint-inspired band in terms of instrumentation and delivery, for sure. To me, however, there is another undefinable quality to Kolya I don't really find in Slint. There are the same narrative-type vocals but there is also passion, rage, urgency. Think La Dispute - truly moving delivery of lyrics. "Astronaut" is pretty, reminds me a lot of Polvo, and the last two tracks are absolute perfection.

Edit: "Horizon," the final track, is the epitome of post-hardcore perfection
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uncertainty is not too easily shaken

Papaye - La Chaleur

 2011; 12 tracks French instrumental math rock trio who clearly have a lot of fun making nonsensical noise with their guitars.

Download / Purchase

Rye Coalition - The Lipstick Game

 1999; 10 track This is the second full-length by New Jersey post-hardcore/math rock band Rye Coalition. Founded in the early 90s, they have produced to date four full-lengths and various EPs and singles and splits, but a friend of mine told me that their earliest stuff is the best. The Lipstick Game is a chaotic blend of aggressive and discordant post-hardcore, with math rock influences. It is said that, two years in the making, the album was seen by many of their early fans as the band's pinnacle, and "documents some of Rye Coalition's most powerful and experimental songwriting." I haven't really heard anything like it, so I'm out of comparisons, but I think The Lipstick Game is a gorgeous album.


Download.

Shellac - Uranus

 1993; 2 tracks You should already know who Shellac is. Uranus is pure saturated fuzziness.

Hibernation: I just want to stay in bed for 3 days straight not taking showers and not moving. Eating a lot. Snuggled as warm as possible, to the point of becoming sweaty. Revolving around some distant planet, listening to these two tracks on repeat continuously.

LOOK AT ME I'M A PLANE

Gorge Trio - Open Mouth, O' Wisp

2004; 22 tracks

Two words I might use to describe Gorge Trio, an instrumental band from New England: seemingly aimless.

"With Open Mouth, O' Wisp, the group moves from the broad strokes of the past to a series of densely packed miniatures, all 22 of which clock in at a running time that just breaks the half-hour mark. There have always been Russian egg constructs within their previous lengthy jams, but here some of the layers are given markers, allowing listeners to step into the fractured crossfire as well as enjoy this as a well-constructed whole. The more constructed pieces here, like 'Intimate Addition,' recall the Gorge Trio's other incarnation as Colossamite stripped of the heavy rock gestures (screaming vocals and two volumes: loud and louder) that aligned that group with the math rock of Don Caballero, placing the trio closer to the source, Captain Beefheart. There are other moments worth calling out, too, like guest Keiko Beers' flute turn on 'Invisible Student,' but they all amount to points on a very busy map that begs to be taken in as a whole. And the whole is quite marvelous, an epic in miniature that encourages repeated listening."

"It's not easy music, but it's also not difficult to like. It fulfills the ears you didn't know you had, shaking a brainstem in its ozone with an ether fiddle. Every note seems compressed to the last degree and scratchy pitches burst forth like mercury through steel wool, scattering about a Donald Judd surface of maximum refraction. It's darned near impossible."

Yeah. I don't know either.

Download.

Polvo - Cor-Crane Secret

1992; 11 tracks

I am so in love with this album. It is so alive - pulsing, breathing, ever-changing. As you listen, you will get a sense of what I mean.

The first release by the NC-based noise/math rock band (personally I think they transcend mere "math rock") Polvo, Cor-Crane Secret is a treasure trove of wonderful things. They do everything right, but the rhythm changes are so unpredictable you may as well give up on following along (when "Kalgon" is first getting started it could go in a variety of directions, but it builds up to an incredible stop-and-start melodic pattern that is really astounding) - but I think that might be what draws me so much to Polvo's sound. The unpredictability, the impreciseness, the layers upon layers of musical ideas and approaches, they all add up to one beast of a debut release. I love the song names, too: "Vibracobra," "Ox Scapula," "The Curtain Remembers." I really, really recommend this.


Download.

Making - EP

2011; 6 tracks

This Australian trio's debut release is a mix of noise and math rock, I guess, but honestly I just really like the way it sounds. Repetitive. Instrumental (for the most part). Pretty.

download / bandcamp

Polvo - This Eclipse EP

1995; 5 tracks

This is MELODIC and EDGY and BRILLIANT. Those are in ALL-CAPS because I am EXCITED about this album. YAY for POLVO.


bombs that fall from your eyes

Engine Kid - Bear Catching Fish

 1993; 8 tracks Bear Catching Fish is the first album of Seattle-based math rock band Engine Kid, whose prominent inspiration was the memorable math rock / post-hardcore band from Kentucky, Slint. The likenesses between the two bands, especially on this release and Slint's Spiderland, are striking. Some might go as far as to say that this album is "pure Slint worship." In my eyes (or ears), Engine Kid's affinity for the music of Slint is portrayed respectfully, and elements of jazz and doom even come into play at times. Engine Kid has released a small number of other EPs and splits, as well as a second full-length, Angel Wings.

As I listen to this I feel a sense of desperation build up in my chest, as if I were stuck inside a cabin on some lost and lonely mountainside far away from any human contact. The intense loneliness and pure weirdness of Engine Kid's musical/vocal atmosphere is beautiful and frightening. If any of you remember Spiderland's specific ambience, there is an incredible holiness, or warmth, about the feeling. It isn't something you connect with on contact, as most are averse to feelings of despair and loneliness, but I just... wonder, sometimes, if maybe that is a prospect much preferable to the fruitless seeking of happiness. I guess I'm just trying to say that Engine Kid encapsulates quite magnificently that -lost- feeling.

Download.

Polvo - Celebrate the New Dark Age EP

1994; 7 tracks

Polvo is a North Carolina-based indie/math rock band from the 90s. Some call them the originators of the "math rock" genre, something I don't think I'm very familiar with, but this release does seem to contain the integral qualities of "math rock," according to Wikipedia: "rhythmically complex guitar-based style of experimental rock." Polvo work on many different levels, their sound being highly complex and sometimes even hard to follow. It is constantly evolving, transforming and creating something new out of the disorder that just was. The greatest part of Polvo, if I may argue, is the lyrics. They are every bit as circuitous as the music. Look at these, taken from my favorite song on the EP, "Every Holy Shroud":

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Celebrate the new dark age with us
Calculate the irony with someone you can trust
Feel the holy shroud that keeps us warm
Show me something round and I'll analyse the form
Give us something brown that sticks like glue
I'll recognize the taste and appreciate it too
This is how it works when we write well
Let me hear a bomb I'll compare it to a bell
I don't understand why you don't get it
I can take the time to insure that you regret it
We are seeing through your weak designs
Fellow connoisseurs flip a coin and make a sign

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This is most definitely a release not to miss. Polvo are a band whose masterful creations, both intense and lovely, are labyrinths in and of themselves.



Download.

Pinebender - Working Nine to Wolf

2006; 8 tracks

Pinebender is Chicago-based trio signed to Lovitt Records who has to date released three full-length albums and one EP. Working Nine to Wolf is their latest effort.

This is honestly one of the most beautiful albums I have heard in recent times - each track has its share of hnnnngg moments, and the varied sounds this band is capable of are evenly spread throughout. The first track, "Parade of Horribles," has been described as a "fourteen-minute synopsis of Pinebender." Their strong musicality carries with it notes of sadness and beauty, and each and every song on here is impossibly brilliant. "Mask Tree" and "Polly Gray" are two of my favorites. Well, I also love "Broadcast All Your Dreams" too, and the final track is mind-blowing. "She Destroys the Light," with its soft but intense energy also stood out to me. I guess I can't pick one favorite! Pinebender play a mix of loud, intensive indie rock and sludge, but some might call it "math rock" that has been slowed down.

"Working Nine To Wolf finds Pinebender at its most aggressive. Still, the band adheres to the modus operandi that makes it special. Playing long melodic compositions very slowly and very loudly is what Pinebender does. They do it well."

Get. Grasp. Have.

EDIT: The track "She Destroys the Light" has become my favorite track of all fucking time.

Battles - Mirrored

2007; 11 tracks

Battles is a New York city rock group, founded around 2002. This is the only album of theirs I've ever heard, but it's super great. You will never hear anything remotely similar to Battles, and I think I'll love this album forever. It reminds me of dredg, faintly, only because of the vocals. The style is reminiscent of Giraffes? Giraffes! and... as much as I hate to say it... Animal Collective. Lay your hipster judgements aside and listen to this purely wonderful album.

Download.