Sunday, March 18, 2012

Renaissance Sound - 2012 - Renaissance Sound

Post-rock
   [FOR FREE]
<a href="http://renaissancesound.bandcamp.com/">?</a>
English
Of all the things I love about post-rock, my favorite part of it is all the different facets of music that it touches upon. At its best, it’s a genre of music that can reach stunningly epic peaks without resorting to just loudness or density to reach that high. It’s all about how the songs are crafted, how they can go from subtly off-kilter to obsessively, incredibly catchy to frantically intense in the blink of an eye with just a slight adjustment of course. What does that sum up to? Well, it sums up to something quite similar to Renaissance Sound, as it turns out. The band may come off as slight, but their sound is anything but. It’s packed with sweeping strings, ferocious little drum rhythms, lucid xylophone twinkles, groovy guitar strums, a gaggle of voices, and about a traveling circus’s worth of other instruments. What makes the music stand out, however, isn’t its diversity but its sense of exploration, how it can go from simple and grand moments of sonic bliss to technically astounding showcases that give the whole affair a laid-back, improvisational vibe. It strikes the balance between structure and spontaneity impressively, and the harmony of the two makes for a cohesive yet engaging listen. More than that, though, this is simply joyful music, in the best sense of the word. Though there’s a slightly melancholy tone beneath the layers of sound, the moments where the band just explodes and all of the layers come crashing down are so unexpected and so well-performed that they have a catharsis to them all the same. This is music that spans generations of listeners in its hooks. It’s music for late night thinkers, for movers, for shakers, for dreamers.

No comments:

Post a Comment