Stubborn Persistent Illusions

I was starting to wonder if I didn’t actually like post-rock. So much of it puts me in a torpor...the kind of feeling which one gets after Thanksgiving dinner. Thank goodness I came across this album. This is post-rock which finally breaks free of the model set by Explosions in the Sky and does something a bit different. It’s not just atmosphere: it has real emotion, and some surprisingly technical drum play.

“Horripilation” is a particularly interesting track. The layers which they start building in the second minute, dissolving into air in the fourth minute, are an astonishing setpiece, and the drums do a tremendous amount of work holding everything together.