They Say We're Sinking - Echoes of the Great War

Comprising its component parts with musicians from hardcore, punk and experimental bands that came out of the local scene in Dover, Delaware, instrumentalists They Say We’re Sinking feel it is their impatience as people that greatly influences their particular take on post rock. And while this hurried, urgent energy is apparent throughout their debut EP Echoes of the Great War, the influence of bands like Red Sparrowes, This Will Destroy You and Explosions in the Sky, one feels is even greater.

An immediate example comes with live favourite and the EPs opener, Beth (Declarer). Yes the energy and snarl is all there and yes it is impeccably played throughout but the fact that I find myself thinking it could be an early track from one of the afore mentioned bands surely can’t be right. These thoughts are unwavering as the EP moves onto Kaph (Invocation), easily the EPs worst track and helped in no part by the cacophonic debauchery that is unwisely deployed at the songs tail end.

Thankfully beams of original light emanate from the second half of Echoes of the Great War. The exquisite arrangement of Gimel (The Wandering) highlights the bands delectable taste for the eclectic and emotive side of instrumental music but it is with the closer Teth (The Keeper) where They Say We’re Sinking stop hiding behind their influences and finally show us a glimpse of their real skin. Encased with deeply, textured layers and deft, precise timing it is not only the EPs stand out track but a vital indication of the bands immense ability.

All said and done this is the bands debut and a certain amount of the proverbial slack must surely be shown. Echoes of the Great War, while not anywhere near the most original offering of the year is still a solid slice of post rock from musicians obviously still trying to find their own identity and I feel from the evidence provided on the EPs latter half, it is what they do next that will define They Say We’re Sinking.

Introducing : Administration Shock Him

What started out primarily as a kind of solo experiment in his basement in Wurzburg, Germany, looking at different methods of recording various instrumentation, it wasn’t until guitarist Christian Kasperbauer enlisted the help of good friend and fellow guitarist Thomas Rauh and drummer Dominik Hartlieb that post rock project Administration Shock Him really began to take shape.

After honing their sound with numerous live shows in their hometown and surrounding areas the band self recorded and released their debut EP 39:03 in March of this year. Taking its influences from a wide range of styles and genres including black and death metal, psychedelic jazz and according to Christian even some weird krautrock stuff, the EP was recorded live in Kasperbauers living room with a large amount of improvisation.

Currently home to the likes of Collapse Under the Empire, Long Distance Calling and Daturah, the band are proud to be part of the ever growing post rock scene in Germany. “There are some very good bands in Germany at the moment that are really pushing the German post rock thing to a higher level,”, Christian explains, “but this is not just here in Germany the scene all over the globe has just exploded, thanks in a huge part to the platform smaller bands are now able to access with the web.”

Administration Shock Him are at present intensively working on material for their upcoming debut album which is penciled in for release early next year. And after missing the festival season this year due to other commitments the band are planning appearances at a number of German festivals to promote their new album in 2012. For the moment however, you can check out their excellent EP 39:03 below.

Interview with Sioum

Hailing from, in their own words, the northern wastes of Illinois, three piece Sioum put out in my opinion one of the finest but alas underrated (this side of the Atlantic anyway) post rock albums of 2010, their excellent debut I Am Mortal, But Was Fiend. However, in the year since its release the band have been beset with issues outside of their control that have hampered plans for the albums follow up. We recently caught up with the guys who explained more.

How did Sioum get started?

Sioum: All three members of Sioum originated from a band called Figure of Fiends. After that ended, Kevin and Dorian continued to write music together. About a year later, Arthur decided to join.

And where did the name come from?

S: Some friends of ours wrote an album, and it was very inspirational for us at the time. Sioum ties into and comes from that.

I was really impressed with your debut I Am Mortal, But Was Fiend, what were the highs and lows when putting it together?

S: Writing the music was the best part. Those songs were the first 3 that we wrote as a band. Recording and mixing was undoubtedly the low point. We had very little experience and knowledge in that area and it was a long drawn out process - over 8 months. Another high was when we finally finished the album. It was a huge relief to be done and have the finished product in our hands.

The albums artwork is excellent; can you tell us a bit about it?

S: The art was a collaborative effort with our friend Shannon. All of our songs have themes/stories that we conveyed to her before she began the artwork. During our 8 months of recording and mixing, she slowly pieced together all of the art. The idea was to help give stories and images to our music, while still allowing the listener's own interpretation and experience. Shannon's art gave us that perfect ambiguous touch. More of her work can be seen on her facebook art page "Beneath the Birds Art".

Is there any news on a follow up?

S: We currently have about 40 minutes of music that will be going on the next LP. We're also trying to figure out how we will approach recording the album - DIY, partial/full studio, programming vs. live drums...etc.

The album is very much a DIY affair; do you think this is the way forward for smaller bands?

S: It really depends on the goals of the band. DIY can be a very strenuous and long process of trial and error if it's your first time. Especially at first, the learning curve can be overwhelming (which can actually hurt the recording and more importantly the band). It takes patience. If the main drive of the group is to write, record, and perform their music, the most efficient route may be to get their music recorded by professionals in the industry. There are people who are very passionate and dedicate years to learning their trade, and much like a musician writing, recording and mixing is their art. People can always say that money is an issue for smaller bands - but if you're serious, a band is your family, investment, and future. Spending money becomes a trivial task that is necessary for proper development.

On the other hand, if mixing and recording is something you aspire to learn, DIY can be a very exciting and gratifying experience. It can help broaden your knowledge in production, which can be applied to other aspects of the band such as live sound. Beyond that, for us, do it yourself just made more sense. We have a tendency to be perfectionists and very meticulous, which would have added pressure to a studio recording situation. We wanted to avoid that. Scoring for video games and film is also an important part of our band and a life-long goal. Working on the album gave us a great opportunity to further the production knowledge we need for that.

Some of the tracks on the album like Upon Awakening and Drifting Away have a cinematic feel, which director would you most like to collaborate with and why?

S: Darren Aronofsky comes to mind. Besides his movies being just plain amazing, his films always leave us inspired and with images we take with us when we write. Whether through the guidance of Aronofsky or Clint Mansell, there is also a "live band" aspect to some of the scores that we enjoy, The Fountain for instance. So working under those motifs would be awesome. The same could be said of Danny Boyle. Some of the music in our old band Figure of Fiends was actually heavily influenced by 28 Days Later and Sunshine.

Have you toured much to support the album?

S: Our plan was originally to take the plunge and set up massive tours shortly after we released the album. Unfortunately, Arthur's problem set in before we could do that.

Yeah I read somewhere that your drummer Arthur had some problems with his arm earlier in the year. How is he now and how has it effected the band?

S: Since our last news announcement, he has gone to another doctor and was re-diagnosed with what is most likely Radial Tunnel Syndrome. He is still undergoing different therapies to try and fix the problem. So, right now that is still in limbo. The biggest effect has been that we are unable to play shows. Although it has also presented us with an opportunity to write more, so we have tried to stay positive and utilize the situation as best as we can. Once things resolve we plan on setting up as many shows as possible and getting our music out there with tours.

So what bands would you most like to tour with and why?

S: Any band we enjoy listening to would be fun to tour with. Bands like Russian Circles and Intronaut make sense. Bands like Meshuggah, Baroness, and Torche don't make as much sense as our sound is different...but we would do it anyway.

But really, we have plans to kidnap Ben Sharp (Cloudkicker) and make him play shows/write music with us. Probably force Isis to get back together too. They can open for us.

What does the future hold for Sioum?

S: Besides working on music for our next album and releasing that, we are also in the middle of writing music for an indie RPG video game. It's coming along really well and we should have more news on that in the near future.

Sounds cool, thanks Sioum!

Canyons of Static - Challenger EP

This latest offering from Wisconsins Canyons of Static can in some ways be seen as a perfect introduction to the bands fascinating infusion of the distorted melodies of shoegaze with the multifaceted emotional aspects of post rock. Recorded in an attic in one afternoon, the Challenger EP is a collection of older tracks reworked with new guitarist Nick Elert to document his addition to the line up.

Formed in 2005 by husband and wife Ross and Aggie Severson, this is a follow up to their 2008 release The Disappearance and finds the band on a more atmospheric, experimental plateau embracing a more ambient sound structure than has been found on their previous releases. Manifesting itself with the wave of guttural drones found on opener Columns and again with the formless yet melodic feedback of closer Worn, this ambient experimentation seems to perfectly cradle the record allowing the band to reverted to a more familiar sound on the two middle tracks, which I may add they do with some style.

Flowing effortlessly from Columns, title track Challenger oozes a raw blend of surging power masked by a profound fragility, capturing flawlessly the essence of the intensity that Canyons of Static bring to their live shows. Completing the set is the appropriately named The Calm, a blissful slice of My Bloody Valentine inspired interplay between the strings of guitarist Ross Severson and the keys of his wife Aggie.

For a band that have been steadily releasing interesting and innovative music since 2006 it is surprising how low Canyons of Static still fly under the radar, whether this is deliberate or not it is hard to know but with Challenger they have created an ideal introduction to anyone who may have missed their older material. And with a new full length album pencilled in for later this year this is a great place to start.

To Destroy A City

Formed in the summer of 2010 with ambitions of collectively fusing the inspiration of many styles and genres into integrated, emotive, compositional pieces, Chicago based trio To Destroy A City have begun their musical life with quite elevated intentions. In many ways so, they are quite fortunate that their eponymous debut, released in September, reaches and surpasses these lofty goals.

The industrious trio of Andrew Welch, Jeff Anderson and Michael Marshall it would seem have wasted little time since their inception, writing the bulk of the material for the record within two months. And while other new bands may spend countless hours fretting over small details about their debut release, To Destroy A City with an obvious inherent confidence in their music and their ability have promptly produced an album ripe with simplistic, trance inducing, ethereally layered compositions that drift through the darkness and light that constitute the complexity of this human condition.

Perfect examples of this foray through the darkness and light litter the album but it is with track Illium that it resonates the finest. It begins with the albums only trace of vocal, a haunting narrated sample of T.S Eliots, The Hollow Men, filling the milieu with the spiritual journey of Eliot’s fellowmen towards salvation and away from despair before exploding into a joyous chorus of reverb drenched guitars and immense synth. Other notable tracks include The Marvels of Modern Civilisation, a short, pulsating tip of the hat to Manchester’s highly influential New Order and the wistful melancholia that is Goodbye, Dear Friend. In truth there is no real blip throughout the forty or so minutes that make up To Destroy A City instead just a very free flowing, superbly crafted debut offering.

For, To Destroy A City to reach the point they are at now in such a short space of time is absolutely mind blowing and one can only envision a very bright future for misters Welch, Anderson and Marshall. To Destroy A City is an album for fans of Boards of Canada, The American Dollar or for anyone who appreciates brilliantly structured ambient infused electronic post rock.

Visit their website here

Introducing: Leaflog

Leaflog are a young Irish instrumental band falling under the loose (and quickly becoming looser) heading of post rock. Believing words to be flawed, the band use thoughtful melody, screeching guitars, blissful chimes and clouds of effected space to express the variety of human emotion through music.

The band hailing from Kerry, is currently four members strong, Padraig Daly - guitar, Sean Daly - guitar/synth, Dave Kissane - bass, Shane O'Neill - drums, but the complexity of human emotion called for more instruments to become involved, so clarinet, piano, xylophone, strings and trumpets were drafted in for the recording of the band's first EP Mayday. The EP was recorded in the summer of 2010 in the Cork School of Music and released that September. On the back of this Leaflog were commissioned to compose an original score for renowned New York based filmmaker Bill Morrisons experimental film Decasia, which they performed live at the Kerry Film Festival.

2011 has seen the band busy writing new material which they are planning to record over Christmas for a planned release date early next year. For the moment you can catch their brilliant live show when the band plays the hard Working Class Heroes festival in Dublin this October.

Interview with Hands

Before releasing Creator, their second album and first for Facedown Records, in 2009, hardcore experimentalists Hands had self released their debut EP The Everlasting, written a concept album The Sounds of Earth and assiduously toured the length and breath of the United States. However, with the strains both emotionally and financially that came with this, the band moved away from full time touring and ended up recording arguably their finest and most creative work to date, the captivating Give Me Rest. We recently caught up with the bands guitarist/vocalist Shane Ochsner who explained more.

What music did you listen to growing up and did this inspire you to want to be in a band?

Shane Ochsner: I’d say the most influential bands for me growing up (in order of appearance) were Audio Adrenaline, Limp Bizkit, Living Sacrifice, The Luti-Kriss, Sevendust, Misery Signals, Jimmy Eat World.

Could you tell us a little bit about how the band got together?

SO: Our drummer Josh and I have been playing in bands together, since were 13 years old. In 2007, he and I connected about playing music together again. We recruited our bass player Chris, and our long time friend Ian, and went to work! We started Hands as a weekend warrior project. Just playing shows whenever we could, and writing when the opportunity presented itself. Shortly after playing our first few shows, doors started opening for us everywhere. We were being invited to play big festivals, open for bigger bands, touring, etc... It was crazy, and totally unexpected! We eventually released “The Everlasting EP”, and things just always moved forward from there!

Give Me Rest is the bands fourth release, how would you describe the progression in your music?

SO: It had been over 2 years since we had written any music together. The last thing we had done was “Creator”, which had been written only a month after writing/recording our “Sounds Of Earth” album, and only 3 months after the release of “The Everlasting EP”. So in less than a year's time, we had released 3 totally different records! So it was time for a break. But in that time from 2008-2011, we all grew up. Our musical influences changed, we had more experience being a band. If you think about it, a lot changes in a few years for an individual, especially young musicians. I think “Give Me Rest” is our best album to date, and I think overall it’s because we have had that 2 year window. Musically it’s more mature and original. Lyrically, it’s more honest and real. The differences between our previous albums and this one are huge!

And what were the strongest influences on it?

SO: All I have listened to for the past year is Jimmy Eat World and HUM. I think there are a few signs of that on this record, but I really don’t know.

What was the recording process for the new record like?

SO: Insane! I ended up having to write and record this entire album by myself, in the midst of becoming a father for the first time and working a full time job! There were so many signs around this album that made us want to throw the project away and call it quits. But ultimately, everything worked out. I started tracking the album here in Kansas City, with my friend Josh Barber at Covenant Studios. We spent roughly 2 months recording, and mixing. This is the album I have had time to actually mess around with a ton of different drums, amps, and guitars. Having the capability to cater to each individual song. It was awesome! I loved my time there, and it will go down as a recording experience I will forever remember.

I read somewhere you guys don’t tour anymore, what are the reasons behind this?

SO: We got sick of being broke, and aimlessly driving around the country hoping the show was “still on”. We love meeting people, travelling, and playing our music. We have no problem playing our best show in front of 2 kids in the middle of nowhere, Arkansas. But at some point, when you have families at home and other responsibilities, you have to know when to call it quits. And we did.

What do you miss the most about not touring? Any chance you might again someday?

SO: I miss the people. Being in a van with my best friends. Night drives and Mountain Dew. Setting up and tearing down my gear every night. Playing the music. I miss it all! And I know that all of us would do it again, if there were a way to make it work financially.

What are your thoughts on the state of the music industry these days?

SO: I keep most of my thoughts to myself on this subject. But it’s obvious things are getting bad. The number of people that are actually going out buying albums is dropping rapidly. And because of that bands are getting less and less for what they do, on top of sky high gas prices (Bands that choose to buy trailers the size of mobile homes, I don’t feel sorry for you.). There are a thousand things today that contribute to the current status of the music industry. I’m curious to see where it all ends up.

And what is Hands stance on illegal downloading?

SO: I don’t know about the other guys in the band, but for me personally I have downloaded a few albums. But all of them are albums that are seriously out dated. My most recent download was “Best Of The Talking Heads”. Which is awesome, by the way. For me, I don’t ever get excited about new bands or upcoming artists. For some reason, I am one of those dudes that’s not very open to accepting new music into my library. So when one of my favourite bands releases a new album, without a doubt I go to the store a buy it! I was standing at Best Buy, waiting for them to open the store the day Jimmy Eat World’s “Invented” album came out last September. $10 well spent!

Are there any new bands that have you excited?

SO: Like I mentioned before, there’s not too much making its way onto my iPod. I do know, that my friends in the band Gideon put out a new album called “Costs”. Anyone that’s into hardcore music, check it out! Also, the latest Deftones album “Diamond Eyes” is pretty cool stuff!

What does the future hold for Hands?

SO: I have no idea. We are trying to line up a few things this fall, but that’s about it. We are drifting further and further away from being a full time band, and with the release of “Give Me Rest” being such an unexpected success, who knows what it will bring. Another album? A couple more tours? A final tour? We are just going with the flow, and Facedown Records have been kind enough to leave the door open for us.

Thanks Shane!!

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