This is along the same lines as my Sigur Ros thread a while back (now in the archive). It's for anyone who wants to find out about this band, which is something I strongly recommend everyone does.
Before I start, I should say, there are no vocals (apart from a few voice-over type things in a couple of their songs). For people that don't normally listen to non-vocal music, don't let this put you off, if you are put off by this, you are missing out on a lot of great music. Some of the most amazing, uplifting (or depressing) and superbly written music, is by bands that don't use vocals. If you think about it, that makes sense; they can concentrate on making music of the highest standard if they don't have to be thinking about vocals aswell.
Explosions In The Sky make music that could be classified most easily as "post-rock". The same genre that includes bands such as Slint, Mogwai, Isis, Pelican, Red Sparowes and Sigur Ros all to varying degrees. It's incredibly powerful music that makes great use of stringed instruments, and uses the drums to full, astounding effect. There is lots of build-up in post-rock. Slow starting songs, which carefully build-up to a crescendo of utterly overwhelming and powerful music are common. In fact, for me, there is nothing more powerful than hearing songs like "Explosions In The Sky - Memorial" and "Sigur Ros - Popplagið" (or Untitled 8 as it is also known). These kind of songs just suck you in with the gently rising volumes and layered sounds, and then send a shiver down your spine with a heart-wrenching finish.
Explosions In The Sky are utterly fantastic at making this kind of music, and they also put on a mindblowing live performance (if you get the chance to see them, go, without hesitation). They lean towards the slightly more "melodic" side of post-rock if you will. As Mohinder told me "you like all this twinkly guitar stuff don't you?" Which I guess is a pretty good description, because much of their guitar sound could be described as such.
So without further ado, here are the Explosions In The Sky albums to check out:
How Strange, Innocence
This is EITS's first album, and it has been recently re-released in a remastered format I believe. This is an album made by a band who haven't properly found their "sound" yet, it contains slightly shorter songs than the other two (not including their latest) albums, and is slightly more experimental in places. It's still a very very good album. I particularly like the first song, "A Song For Our Fathers" with the helicopter-esque sound at the beginning.
Here's the Pitchfork review:
http://pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/e/explosions-in-the-sky/how-strange-innocence.shtml
Rating 7.9
Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Live Forever
This is the best of the three in my opinion even though I tend not to listen to it as much, because it requires more attention, and works best when listened to all the way through. It's slightly heavier in places than quite a few of the previous EITS songs ("Greet Death") and also quite downbeat in others ("The Moon Is Down") to create a good variety of songs. I haven't listened to it properly in a while, so I don't have much more to say on it, other than that it's a fabulous album. It's an album by a band who have truly found their sound.
As you can see from the rating, this is the album on which the band truly knows what it wants to do, and how it wants to sound. There's quite a lot of subtlety to it, not as apparent in the other albums.
Here's the Pitchfork review:
http://pitchforkmedia.com/record-re...-sky/those-who-tell-the-truth-shall-die.shtml
Rating: 8.9
The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place
While I don't think this is my favourite Explosions In The Sky album, when viewed as a whole, but it has two of the greatest Explosions In The Sky (and post-rock for that matter) songs: "Memorial" and "First Breathe After Coma". The drumming keeps it all together wonderfully, perfectly leading the "twinkly" guitars up and down, as they work upwards, exploring and climaxing. Explosions In The Sky have two guitarists, a bassist and the drummer, and it is these two guitarists that really create some wonderfully duel sounds, sometimes off-beat with each other, sometimes perfectly emphasising each other's sound. It's a truly wonderful thing to hear.
Again, here is the Pitchfork review:
http://pitchforkmedia.com/record-re...-the-sky/earth-is-not-a-cold-dead-place.shtml
Rating: 7.7 (bare in mind, with both the albums I have mentioned I think Pitchfork underrated thems)
The Rescue (Travels in Constants Vol. 21)
This is EITS's latest release. It's an odd affair, as it was created in a strange way. Basically the band decided to spend eight days, writing a song on each day. If they didn't like the song, they started from the beginning again, re-writing all the previous songs (I think that's correct, but not 100%). As a result of this, it's a looser affair, with more random influences, and a slightly different sound to normal. They experiment with different instruments, and make use of vocals more than they have done. It's interesting, but I don't rate it as highly as their other releases. Nevertheless it is still a very good album. One which I think I will devote a bit more time to in the near future.
Here's the Pitchfork review:
http://pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/e/explosions-in-the-sky/rescue.shtml
Rating: 7.2
There are other assorted releases I believe, one written for the soundtrack to a movie I forget the name of, and they also did a Peel Session which I have, and that's also excellent.
If you like fantastic music, give this band a try sometime.
Explosions In The Sky hail from Texas, and they are:
Mark Smith = Guitar
Michael James = Bass
Munaf Rayani = Guitar
Christopher Hrasky = Drums
As I normally say: Please don't let this sink to page two after a couple of hours, it takes a long time to write a post like this, and I always appreciate comments/feedback, and if anyone also likes them, don't hesitate to confess your love for them too
Edit: Swapped The Truth and The Earth around, after I was told the former was released before the latter, and slightly edited the reviews to follow this.
Before I start, I should say, there are no vocals (apart from a few voice-over type things in a couple of their songs). For people that don't normally listen to non-vocal music, don't let this put you off, if you are put off by this, you are missing out on a lot of great music. Some of the most amazing, uplifting (or depressing) and superbly written music, is by bands that don't use vocals. If you think about it, that makes sense; they can concentrate on making music of the highest standard if they don't have to be thinking about vocals aswell.
Explosions In The Sky make music that could be classified most easily as "post-rock". The same genre that includes bands such as Slint, Mogwai, Isis, Pelican, Red Sparowes and Sigur Ros all to varying degrees. It's incredibly powerful music that makes great use of stringed instruments, and uses the drums to full, astounding effect. There is lots of build-up in post-rock. Slow starting songs, which carefully build-up to a crescendo of utterly overwhelming and powerful music are common. In fact, for me, there is nothing more powerful than hearing songs like "Explosions In The Sky - Memorial" and "Sigur Ros - Popplagið" (or Untitled 8 as it is also known). These kind of songs just suck you in with the gently rising volumes and layered sounds, and then send a shiver down your spine with a heart-wrenching finish.
Explosions In The Sky are utterly fantastic at making this kind of music, and they also put on a mindblowing live performance (if you get the chance to see them, go, without hesitation). They lean towards the slightly more "melodic" side of post-rock if you will. As Mohinder told me "you like all this twinkly guitar stuff don't you?" Which I guess is a pretty good description, because much of their guitar sound could be described as such.
So without further ado, here are the Explosions In The Sky albums to check out:
How Strange, Innocence
This is EITS's first album, and it has been recently re-released in a remastered format I believe. This is an album made by a band who haven't properly found their "sound" yet, it contains slightly shorter songs than the other two (not including their latest) albums, and is slightly more experimental in places. It's still a very very good album. I particularly like the first song, "A Song For Our Fathers" with the helicopter-esque sound at the beginning.
Here's the Pitchfork review:
http://pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/e/explosions-in-the-sky/how-strange-innocence.shtml
Rating 7.9
Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Live Forever
This is the best of the three in my opinion even though I tend not to listen to it as much, because it requires more attention, and works best when listened to all the way through. It's slightly heavier in places than quite a few of the previous EITS songs ("Greet Death") and also quite downbeat in others ("The Moon Is Down") to create a good variety of songs. I haven't listened to it properly in a while, so I don't have much more to say on it, other than that it's a fabulous album. It's an album by a band who have truly found their sound.
As you can see from the rating, this is the album on which the band truly knows what it wants to do, and how it wants to sound. There's quite a lot of subtlety to it, not as apparent in the other albums.
Here's the Pitchfork review:
http://pitchforkmedia.com/record-re...-sky/those-who-tell-the-truth-shall-die.shtml
Rating: 8.9
The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place
While I don't think this is my favourite Explosions In The Sky album, when viewed as a whole, but it has two of the greatest Explosions In The Sky (and post-rock for that matter) songs: "Memorial" and "First Breathe After Coma". The drumming keeps it all together wonderfully, perfectly leading the "twinkly" guitars up and down, as they work upwards, exploring and climaxing. Explosions In The Sky have two guitarists, a bassist and the drummer, and it is these two guitarists that really create some wonderfully duel sounds, sometimes off-beat with each other, sometimes perfectly emphasising each other's sound. It's a truly wonderful thing to hear.
Again, here is the Pitchfork review:
http://pitchforkmedia.com/record-re...-the-sky/earth-is-not-a-cold-dead-place.shtml
Rating: 7.7 (bare in mind, with both the albums I have mentioned I think Pitchfork underrated thems)
The Rescue (Travels in Constants Vol. 21)
This is EITS's latest release. It's an odd affair, as it was created in a strange way. Basically the band decided to spend eight days, writing a song on each day. If they didn't like the song, they started from the beginning again, re-writing all the previous songs (I think that's correct, but not 100%). As a result of this, it's a looser affair, with more random influences, and a slightly different sound to normal. They experiment with different instruments, and make use of vocals more than they have done. It's interesting, but I don't rate it as highly as their other releases. Nevertheless it is still a very good album. One which I think I will devote a bit more time to in the near future.
Here's the Pitchfork review:
http://pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/e/explosions-in-the-sky/rescue.shtml
Rating: 7.2
There are other assorted releases I believe, one written for the soundtrack to a movie I forget the name of, and they also did a Peel Session which I have, and that's also excellent.
If you like fantastic music, give this band a try sometime.
Explosions In The Sky hail from Texas, and they are:
Mark Smith = Guitar
Michael James = Bass
Munaf Rayani = Guitar
Christopher Hrasky = Drums
As I normally say: Please don't let this sink to page two after a couple of hours, it takes a long time to write a post like this, and I always appreciate comments/feedback, and if anyone also likes them, don't hesitate to confess your love for them too
Edit: Swapped The Truth and The Earth around, after I was told the former was released before the latter, and slightly edited the reviews to follow this.
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