I’ll be honest with you: post rock has me worried. A lot of the bands I’ve recently heard from the genre, with a few exceptions, were pretty stale. Formulas control everything, the delay paddle rules supreme and even established acts fail to innovate or present us with anything new. I should have known that the solution would be to go to the fringes. Thankfully, the Internet has me covered. Last night, Hubris from Switzerland reached out to us with their debut album, Emersion. What played when I pressed play was sweet and sad, ambient and groovy, all at the same time. Head on over the jump and listen for yourself.
OK, I was supposed to pick one track but I couldn’t and I’m an editor so I do what I want. In any case, listen to the contrast between these two tracks! “Satyre” is inherently groovy, with that saxophone coming in near the middle. “Gold Drizzle” however is warm, slow and wet, enchanting with delicate notes and background noises until it explodes into reverb laden guitars near the six and a half minute mark.
The rest of this album is just as skillful. This band plays all across the post rock smorgasbord, rather than sticking to classic tricks and compartmentalizing their music. The result is something fresh, young, hopeful and dedicated with immediately captured my heart and mind. I’m calling it now: this is the breakout post rock act of the year.
-EK