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Post Rock is a subgenre of Alternative Rock that is characterized by odd time signatures, melodies, harmonies, and chord progressions. Another thing that most post rock has in common is that it's like Progressive Rock turned Up to Eleven. Basically the music is known for very lengthy quiet parts that can spend up to 10 minutes or more to build up to a gigantic wall of sound for the climax. This wall of sound may or may not last long in the music (Your Mileage May Vary on whether or not the climax was worth the quiet parts).
Post Rock has a very confusing history. Some people credit The Velvet Underground for starting it with songs like "Heroin" which started off extremely quiet and ended in droney, massive climax. Other sources give credit to the "Krautrock" movement of The Sixties and The Seventies. All sources seem to agree that the movement "officially" started either in 1991, when Slint released their album Spiderland and Talk Talk released Laughing Stock, or in 1988, when Talk Talk relased Spirit of Eden. All three albums are considered classics and are extremely influential. The term "post-rock" itself is generally considered to have been introduced as a descriptor for music of this genre in a review of Bark Psychosis' 1994 album Hex by music journalist Simon Reynolds which appeared in Mojo in March of that year, although Reynolds claims to have used the term before that review. [1] Reynolds clarified the term in an article for The Wire published later that year, describing it as music "using rock instrumentation for non-rock purposes, using guitars as facilitators of timbre and textures rather than riffs and power chords."
Throughout the The Nineties bands such as Cul de Sac, Tortoise, Labradford, Bowery Electric and Stars of the Lid helped mold the genre into what it resembles now. The movement sparked mainly from three different cities with their own separate scenes: Chicago, Glasgow, and Montreal.
Then, in the 2000's bands such as Mogwai, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and Explosions in the Sky helped expand the genre even more. Then, a number of Sludge Metal bands started picking up on the genre, resulting in "post-metal" or "atmospheric sludge". Since then, the underground has been littered with Post Rock bands.
Bands that are generally considered to be post-rock (post-metal included):[]
- 65daysofstatic
- Agalloch (Mixed with Folk, Black Metal, Ambient, and Doom Metal)
- And So I Watch You from Afar
- Balmorhea
- Bark Psychosis
- Because of Ghosts
- Bowery Electric
- Caspian
- Codes in the Clouds
- Cul de Sac
- Cult of Luna
- Dirty Three
- Disco Inferno
- Do Make Say Think
- Ef
- Efterklang
- Explosions in the Sky
- Foxhole
- From Monuments to Masses
- God Is an Astronaut
- Godspeed You! Black Emperor
- Hammock
- Her Name Is Calla
- Isis
- Jaga Jazzist (started off as NuJazz, but shifted to a post-rock sound with their 2005 album What We Must)
- Jeniferever
- Joy Wants Eternity
- Labradford
- Laika
- LITE
- M83
- Maybeshewill
- Mogwai
- Mono
- Moonshake
- Pelican
- Pram
- Red Sparowes
- Russian Circles
- Saxon Shore
- Seefeel
- Sigur Ros
- Slint
- Stars of the Lid
- Stereolab
- Talk Talk
- Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra
- This Will Destroy You
- Tortoise
- Under Byen
- Vessels
- World's End Girlfriend
- Yndi Halda
- Youthmovies
- ↑ He also did not invent it, although he thought he did at the time, but his use of the term does appear to have been the first time it was used to describe this particular genre of music.