Instrumental Post-Rock
tagStarted 1997Peak 2003-2012Last big hit still active
Located in 2 routes
The wordless heart of post-rock: no vocals at all, just interlocking guitars in tremolo and reverb, melodic bass, and drums marshaling the quiet-to-loud build. Tracks rise from a single delayed motif to towering, distorted crescendos, then collapse. Emotion is conveyed entirely through dynamics, timbre and the slow accumulation of layers.
History
Crystallized as Explosions in the Sky (Texas, formed 1999) and Mono (Japan) refined Mogwai's and Godspeed's instrumental crescendo into a tighter, hook-conscious form. Explosions' 2003 The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place became the genre's touchstone; the wordless build-and-release template spread worldwide through the 2000s.
Defining artists
Essential listening
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-rock
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Earth_Is_Not_a_Cold_Dead_Place
- https://www.allmusic.com/artist/explosions-in-the-sky-mn0000787671
- https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/explosions-in-the-sky-the-earth-is-not-a-cold-dead-place/