A few years ago, I made one of the best decisions of my time with the blog: I dove deep into the new, growing, and excellent American post-rock scene. One of my favorite bands that I discovered from that deep dive was Wess Meets West. Eschewing the more dream-like and expansive sound of their brethren in post-rock, Wess Meets West play a very forward, groove based sort of post-rock. As I once said, the louder the bass gets on these releases, the better they are and Wess Meets West are the kings of the prominent bass. Now, the band are back with "virtues", which I more than happy to premiere here today. This new single is off of their upcoming album, anclas, and you can check it in full right down here!
OK, yeah, this is the good stuff. While "virtues" is underpinned by the same "rise and fall" sort of structure that this genre is famous for, and which has very much dictated the way forwards for the American iteration of it as well, it's still at its core driven by a very central groove section. I also love the addition of more atmospheric elements to the sound, with the middle of the track dominated by a Mono sounding sort of passage. But then it's right back to the brilliant main riff of the track, punctuated by beautiful synths and guitars as it dives into its quieter iterations and explodes into its louder, bigger form.
All in all, this new track spells wonders for the upcoming release. anclas releases July 5th, and you can (and should) click on to the band's Bandcamp page above to pre-order it. Also, maybe come to Post. Fest on July 25th? Wess Meets West are playing with some other great bands and I will be in attendance. See you there!