The staggering amount of instrumental post-rock that’s been covering my desk in promo sleeves has only grown recently. Apparently, someone told a whole bunch of metal dudes that it’s okay to write songs without having anyone sing over them. If they really feel like going lieder-free, they should be taking cues from Aspects Of Physics.
Not that the band, featuring two former members of Physics and underground rock slut-genius Rob Crow, don’t have their own myriad of influences to pull from, most obviously Kraftwerk, Tortoise and the members’ other acts, including the aforementioned Physics, Optiganally Yours, Thingy, etc. Their minimalist instrumentals, however, take to task the relative cock-rocking riff-worship that’s become so trendy to provide a response to the question of how to make instrumental rock worthwhile.
And their answer is relatively simple. Keep it hypnotic, almost ambient, and mentally stimulating. Simple and elegant. Oh, and listen to a bunch of Autechre and Brian Eno.
Being a love-you-long-time admirer of truly interesting instrumental rock, Marginalized Information Forms Three: Other, the third part of the Marginalized Information series, finally caught up with me. Here’s to my buying the other two.
In A Word: Refreshing
