Prawn - 'False Institutions' (2009)

Prawn - 'False Institutions' (2009)

*free here*

1) Nightmares

2) Thousand Grains of Sand

3) Courage Kills Men

4) Arctic Foxes

5) Family Tree

There are quite a few bands that are blurring the line between vocal post-rock and emo music. The first one that comes to mind is Moving Mountains for me, but it could be The Appleseed Cast, Empire! Empire! (I Was a Lonely Estate), or a number of other bands for you. Forgive me if I make too many comparisons, but it's hard not to do that here for me.

Prawn is one of those emo/post-rock bands, and they're from New Jersey. They released this for free on their Bandcamp, and have since put up another free demo and a full-length. But what makes Prawn different to me is that they don't take a minute or two to build up to anything. Their momentum stays strong for even a whole song. Instead of slow portions of soft singing and clean guitar, they insert interludes of distorted guitar or drums. Essentially, this band captures you from the start and keeps your attention without letting you take a break with a soft section.

But I have to forewarn you: if strong lyrics are what you're looking for, Prawn may not be for you. However, while the lyrics may not be a strength of the band, the vocals are. That should be apparent by the end of the first track, "Nightmare". After a guitar progression that was surprisingly fantastic to me when I first heard it, the vocals come in and fill the sound with a mixture of more raw emo music and more refined and coordinate post-rock.

The thing about Prawn is that they aren't very intricate, but they certainly do an exceptional job with seemingly basic elements. The album is free, and definitely worth a listen.

Aurore Rien - 'Telesthesia' (2001)

Aurore Rien - 'Telesthesia' (2001)

1) Hindsight 20/20

2) Hearts Murmur Under Halogen Lights

3) Breakaway, Sydney

4) Sunsets, I Have Seen Too Many Without You

Aurore Rien was a post-rock band that I believe was from Wisconsin. Two of the members went on to form Wisconsin-based ambient music project Lights Out Asia, which leads me to believe that Aurore Rien was from the same state. At any rate, these are the unsung heroes of vocal post-rock (a bit oxi-moronic, but you get what I mean). They released a full-length album called 'Sedative for the Celestial Blue' in 1999, and then this EP in 2001.

"Hindsight 20/20" has always been my favorite song by this band. It's relatively long, as are all the songs on this EP (they're all about 8 or 9 minutes). There are a lot of sections with repeating phrases, and the first track on this album uses that most effectively in my opinion. There is a repeated guitar phrases that gets gradually more intense until it ends at 2:35. Later, there is a portion where the singer repeats a phrase that I understand to be "Let's stay here tonight". At the part where the guitar becomes distorted, the vocals become more reverberated, which helps to create quite a chilling atmosphere.

The rest of the album includes similarly repetitive musical phrases, but there's a subtle build and change with each time. The vocals are used more as an instrument than as a way to express lyrics or words. It's almost like a compromise between the original Bark Psychosis-esque "post-rock" and the then-new sound of bands like Explosions in the Sky. The track "Breakaway, Sydney" also includes a sample of a speech made by John L. Lewis, a former Head of the Union Mine Workers. The speech was made before the U.S. Congress in 1947.

Aurore Rien is a somehow forgotten band that exemplified the turning point for post-rock music by combing sounds of the mid-1990's to the new sounds of the early 2000's. This album is a really great one, and I would highly recommend it.

RIYL: Bark Psychosis, Jeniferever, Explosions in the Sky

Sleep Patterns - 'Parmi Les Rois' (2008)

Sleep Patterns - 'Parmi Les Rois' (2008)

*free here*

1) Colonies

2) Feeny

3) Christopher Talkin'

4) Sweat Fortress

5) The Useful Sound

6) Tell That Joke You Know

7) Revolutions

Sleep Patterns was a real screamo/post-hardcore band from Northwest Indiana/Southwest Michigan, the area where Merchant Ships and Midwest Pen Pals were formed and played. In fact, I found out about this band because Merchant Ships has a song called "Sleep Patterns", which includes a story that apparently was written by one of the members of the band Sleep Patterns. As it turned out, the band is ridiculously refreshing in a sea of emo/screamo revival bands.

The album opens with a clean guitar riff that is chilling to the bone. The guitar tone makes it very atmospheric, it's quite hard to describe, so you can listen for yourself! But this band was ultra-legitimate. You can hear in the singer's voice that he means everything he says very passionately. The vocals on this album are what really separate this from other bands like it. There are some controlled voice cracks along the way that make it more dynamic.

The album is 25 minutes long; it's only an EP and as far as I can tell it's their only release. To make the album even more legitimate, the band broke up due to their lead singer/bassist having nervous breakdowns. As much as that's a bummer, it makes the album even more emotionally dynamic to me. Oh, and did I mention that the album is free? All the more reason for you to give a listen to this amazing EP.

RIYL: Pianos Become the Teeth, My Heart to Joy, (old) mewithoutYou

The Steve Spiegl Big Band - 'Perspectives' (1982)

The Steve Spiegl Big Band - 'Perspectives' (1982)

1) Hot

2) The Sphynx's Lair

3) Mirage

4) Bacchanalia

5) Spanish Steps

6) Parfait

7) Willie

8) Together Again

9) A Day in the Life

10) The Late Great Planet Earth

This is a relatively old big band jazz album that sounds like Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band could have recorded it. Like the Big Phat Band, the Steve Spiegl Big Band is from California and they perform awesome swing and modern jazz music. Sorry if I compare the two bands too much, I'm not too familiar with modern big bands.

But I am familiar with this album. I first heard "A Day in the Life", which (fortunately or unfortunately) is not a Beatles cover. Rather, it's a really intricate piece that shows off all sections, from the trombone intro to the saxophone/flute riff that comes in later. The rhythm section is extremely tight, and even though that's expected from a studio recording, the groove is still really great.

After hearing just that one song, I had to hear the rest of the album. And after hearing it, it's a really great album and I was surprised that almost 30 years had gone by and there is such little recognition of this band. So I took the liberty of putting the entire album on YouTube. Check out "A Day in the Life" if you wanna be impressed!

Basically, this big band is not big enough in my opinion. But I'm not exaggerating how great the album is. While there are (relatively) a lot of ballads on it, there are also swing songs, songs with a Latin feel, and a cool sound in all of the songs. So listen to this album, it's a hidden gem of modern big band jazz music.

Tunturia - 'Maps' (2007)

Tunturia - 'Maps' (2007)

1) Panic Attack
2) Echoes of the Unmoved
3) Silence is Consent
4) Cast Shadows on Clouds
5) October 4, 1957
6) Satellites
7) Tunturia
8) These are the Words
9) Robots Building Robots
10) Lost in the Hidden Forest

Tunturia is a Canadian instrumental post-rock band. 'Maps' is the only album I've heard by them, so keep that in mind when I talk about them.They tend to be focused on soundscapes but they can't really be described as ambient. They're repetitive, but not in a bad way. They do little things to change it around to prevent you from being bored.

I admit it's better if you aren't focused on the music (with a few exceptions like beginning track "Panic Attack"); otherwise the album seems to drag on very long, especially when you get to the later tracks. But the first two tracks are stunning. The reason I don't give this album the credit it probably deserves is probably I like the first two tracks so much that the rest of the album doesn't hold up to what I thought it'd be.

As for the actual music, the album is standard post-rock but with a laid back feel that is somewhere between Hammock and Explosions in the Sky. The drums are very prevalent, as well as clean guitar melodies that build upon keyboards/ambient sounds. It's overall a great sound that's great to relax to. The album starts off with an energetic-sounding guitar riff that repeats for a lot of the song, but it's a bit of a misleading start, because their songs aren't of the energetic type.

But if you're bored of your extensive collection of Mogwai and This Will Destroy You, give some of Tunturia's songs a listen on Youtube, you'll enjoy it.

RIYL: Daturah, Laura, This Will Destroy You

Kauan - 'Lumikuuro' (2007)

Kauan - 'Lumikuuro' (2007)

1) Alku

2) Aamu ja Kaste

3) Lumikuuro

4) Savu

5) Koivun Elämä

6) Syleilyn Sumu

7) Villiruusu

8) Syleilyn Sumu (Akkustika)

Kauan are a folk black metal band from Russia. Well, you could say there were a folk black metal band. Nah, they didn't break up, but their last album was most atmospheric folk/post-rock. I have yet to listen to it, but right now I'm very satisfied with this debut full-length.

It has the black metal elements mostly in the vocals. But don't take that as if they don't fit, because they do fit very well with the music. It's more towards atmospheric black metal, where the drums are much more laid back (almost like doom metal drumming) but with heavy distorted guitars with interludes of clean guitars, synthesizers, and other atmospheric sounds.

There's a ton of piano on this album which gives it a neat feel. You can just hear the heavy emotions in the song. It's really cool how they attain that with such little layering of music and sounds.

If you like post-metal like Agalloch that's melancholy, but also really heavy at times, check this album out. I might go so far as to say that it's the most unique black metal album I've ever heard. Of course I'm not too well-versed in black metal, but this still warrants a listen.

RIYL: Enslaved, Amesoeurs, Alcest

Betterment - 'Defined' (2010)

Betterment - 'Defined' (2010)

*free here*

1) Energy

2) Brotel Rwanda

3) Ded

4) Defined

Betterment is a cool emo/hardcore band from Florida (USA) that has this free EP out and are working on new material as well, to be recorded in April 2011. [As a side note, the new stuff is most like "Ded" on this album]. They have both clean guitars playing chords and distorted guitars putting the hardcore sound in.

They've also got some great vocals, I like them. They're harsh but you can understand a lot of it and hear the emotion in it. The band is tight, they all blend together well and get a great sound. The energy in the music is great - I'm sure they'd be awesome live.

They're showing that it takes a lot more than for some influential bands to break up to take down this genre. And the recording quality is not bad at all and the EP is less than 12 minutes. I actually made a list of my top 80 favorite emo/screamo songs and "Brotel Rwanda" was at 28, just above Cap'n Jazz's "Ooh Do I Love You". I hope that's a testament to just how awesome this band is. They're a fresh listen, and free at that, so definitely worth a listen!

RIYL: Sinaloa, mewithoutYou, Hightide Hotel