Don Caballero and
Tortoise were among the more prominent bands described as post-rock in the 1990s, but their styles are very different, despite being instrumental bands centered on guitars and drums. As such, the term has been the subject of backlash from listeners and artists alike.
Although firmly rooted in the
indie or
underground scene of the 1980s and '90s, post-rock's style often bears little resemblance musically to that of
indie rock.
Origin of the term Post-rock
The term "post-rock" is believed to have been coined by critic
Simon Reynolds in his review of
Bark Psychosis' album
Hex, published in the March 1994 issue of
Mojo magazine.
Reynolds expanded upon the idea later in the May 1994 issue of
The Wire.
He used the term to describe music "using rock instrumentation for non-rock purposes, using guitars as facilitators of
timbre and textures rather than
riffs and
power chords". He further expounded on the term,
| “ | Perhaps the really provocative area for future development lies... in cyborg rock; not the wholehearted embrace of Techno's methodology, but some kind of interface between real time, hands-on playing and the use of digital effects and enhancement. | ” |
Reynolds, in a July 2005 entry in his blog, claimed he had used the term "post-rock" before using it in
Mojo, previously using it in music newspaper
Melody Maker. He also said he later found the term to not be of his own creation, saying in his blog, "although I genuinely believed I was coining the term, I discovered many years later it had been floating around for over a decade." The term was used by American journalist
James Wolcott in a 1975 article about musician
Todd Rundgren, although with a different meaning. It was also used in the
Rolling Stone Album Guide to name a style roughly corresponding to "
avant-rock" or "out-rock".
Another pre-1994 example of the term in use can be found in an April 1992 review of 90's noise-pop band The Earthmen by Steven Walker in
Melbourne music publication
Juke, where he describes a "post-rock noisiest".
Historical development
Early precedents
Post-rock appears to take a heavy influence from late 1960s U.S. group
The Velvet Underground and their "
dronology" — "a term that loosely describes fifty percent of today's post rock activity".
British group
Public Image Ltd (PiL) were also pioneers, described by the
NME as "arguably the first post-rock group". Their second album
Metal Box (1979) almost completely abandoned traditional rock and roll structures in favor of dense, repetitive
dub- and
krautrock-inspired soundscapes and
John Lydon's cryptic, stream-of-consciousness lyrics. The year before
Metal Box was released, PiL bassist
Jah Wobble declared, "rock is obsolete".
Flowers of Romance (1981), their third album, was an even more radical departure, emphasizing rattling percussion and abstract
tape music.
1990s post-rock
Bands from the early 1990s, such as
Slint, or earlier, such as
Talk Talk, were later recognized as influential on post-rock. Slint's
Spiderland and Talk Talk's
Laughing Stock are credited as giving birth to post-rock.
Post-rock group
Mogwai performs at a 2007 concert.
Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Scottish group
Mogwai were among some of the influential post-rock groups to continue their music career or end before the turn of the 21st century.
2000s post-rock
In the early 2000s, the term had started to fall out of favor. It became increasingly controversial as more critics outwardly condemned its use. Some of the bands for whom the term was most frequently assigned, including
Cul de Sac,
Tortoise, and
Mogwai, rejected the label. The wide range of styles covered by the term, they and others have claimed, rob it of its usefulness.
Today, despite criticism of the term, post-rock has maintained its prominence.
Sigur Rós, with the release of
Ágætis byrjun in 1999, has become among the most well known post-rock bands of the 2000s. In part this has been due to the use of many of their tracks, particularly their 2005 single "
Hoppípolla", in TV soundtracks and film trailers, including the
BBC's
Planet Earth. Their popularity can at least somewhat be attributed to a move towards a more rock oriented sound with simpler song structures and increasing utilization of pop hooks.
Explosions in the Sky,
This Will Destroy You,
Do Make Say Think,
Pelican, and
Mono are some of the more popular post-rock bands of the 2000s. With a few exceptions, most notably
Sigur Rós and
Mogwai (album Mr.Beast in particular), the post-rock of the 21st century has generally eliminated vocals from its repertoire.
Musical characteristics
The post-rock sound incorporates characteristics from a variety of musical genres, including
ambient,
jazz,
electronica, and
experimental.Early post-rock groups also often exhibited strong influence from the
krautrock of the '70s, particularly borrowing elements of "
motorik", the characteristic krautrock rhythm.
Post-rock compositions often make use of repetition of musical motifs and subtle changes with an extremely wide range of dynamics. In some respects, this is similar to the music of
Steve Reich,
Philip Glass, and
Brian Eno, pioneers of
minimalism. Typically, post-rock pieces are lengthy and instrumental, containing repetitive build-ups of
timbre,
dynamics and texture.
Vocals are often omitted from post-rock; however, this does not necessarily mean they are absent entirely. When vocals are included, the use is typically non-traditional: some post-rock bands employ vocals as purely instrumental efforts and incidental to the sound, rather than a more traditional use where "clean", easily-interpretable vocals are important for poetic and lyrical meaning. When present, post-rock vocals are often soft or droning and are typically infrequent or present in irregular intervals.
Sigur Rós, a band known for their distinctive vocals, fabricated a language that critics call "
Hopelandic" ("Vonlenska" in Icelandic, a term even used by the band), which has been described by the band as "a form of gibberish vocals that fits to the music and acts as another instrument."
However, in lieu of typical rock structures like the
verse-chorus form, post-rock groups generally make greater use of soundscapes. As
Simon Reynolds states in his "Post-Rock" from
Audio Culture, "A band's journey through rock to post-rock usually involves a trajectory from narrative lyrics to stream-of-consciousness to voice-as-texture to purely instrumental music". Reynolds' conclusion defines the sporadic progression from rock, with its field of sound and lyrics to post-rock, where samples are stretched and looped.
Wider experimentation and blending of other genres have recently taken hold in the post-rock scene.
Cult of Luna,
Isis,
Russian Circles and
Pelican have fused
metal with post-rock styles. The resulting sound has been termed
post-metal. More recently,
Sludge metal has grown and evolved to include (and in some cases fuse completely with) some elements of post-rock. This second wave of sludge metal has been pioneered by bands such as
Giant Squid and
Battle of Mice. This new sound is often seen on the label of
Neurot Recordings.Similarly, bands such as
Altar of Plagues, Lantlôs and
Agalloch blend between post-rock and
black metal, incorporating elements of the former while primarily using the latter. In some cases, this sort of experimentation and blending has gone beyond the fusion of post-rock with a single genre, as in the case of
post-metal, in favor of an even wider embrace of disparate musical influences.
