My thoughts on post rock

Tomorrow, I'm going to see Godspeed You! Black Emperor live. I'm pretty excited. I've been a fan of theirs (although not a hardcore one, some people can get very worked up on the subject of post rock) for a while now, and I'd definitely put Lift Your Skinny Fists and Slow Riot For New Zero Kanada in my John Peel-style box of records I couldn't do without. I've been listening to some of their other stuff as 'revision' for the gig, and I just can't seem to click with it. I've no idea why really - F#A#∞ has just as good reviews from all the usual fairly-reputable sources, and quite a few people cite is as better than LYSF. I really don't understand why. There is far less musical development during the songs that on their later stuff, which is fairly unforgivable when you're asking a listener to give up the best part of half an hour to listen to a single track.

Bardo Pond are another one. They're meant to be one of the quintessential space-y post rock bands, but I just don't feel anything when I listen to the music. It's all very well to put a drone over a wall of feedback, add some hushly spoken samples as vocals and stretch it out for 15 minutes or more - indeed, this is what GY!BE do best - but there needs to either be some musical development during the song or the inital idea needs to be capable of being stretched out for a long period of time. It can't just be a noise-fest. Any feedback added should be a bonus, not just a substitute for tunes or feeling. I'd say Explosions In The Sky were one of my favourite post rock bands because, despite not having as interesting ideas as some of their contemporaries, they write songs with structure that hold up on their own right, without having to drench it in feedback.

Fundamentally, post rock can be truly sublime, and there are certain moods where nothing else will do, but there is far too much self-indulgent uninteresting stuff out there.

Here's a video of one of my favourite post rock tracks, Moya by GY!BE. Make sure you listen through proper speakers - headphones are allowable, but computer speakers just won't do it justice.