OFF: Mogwai and Tortoise?

[K Henderson]

Beautiful Foot wrote:

>I can wholeheartedly recommend Tortoise.  I've never heard Mogwai, and I'm
>>a fan of GYBE! so I would disagree with any comparison there apart from both
>>bands being instrumental and experimental.

Yeah, really.  I'm not exactly sure why gybe! are so often given as a
typical example of 'post-rock.'  What they do is so totally different from
everyone else that I hardly think they are even part of the same thing
sometimes.  Maybe some of their spinoffs (like Fly Pan Am) are more akin to
Tortoise and the lot, but it seems only Sigur Ros is really in the same
melancholic boat as gybe!

>I'd go along with that. Tortoise have quite a strong experimental jazz
>influence, and the sound is bass-driven, quite laid-back and reflective,
>but full of subtlety and musical tricks. "Millions Now Living..." would be
>my pick of their albums. I was a bit disappointed by "TNT" which seemed to
>overdo the artsy cleverness and came over as a bit dry, though it has its
>moments too.

I'll have to check this one (MNL...) out.  I agree that TNT is ok, but
nothing that special.

>Haven't heard their latest one. I can't see much similarity
>with GYBE except that both bands play rather left-field instrumental music
>and aren't afraid to take musical risks. But they don't really sound like
>each other.
>
>Never heard Mogwai, although I keep seing them mentioned in these kinds of
>discussions, so maybe I should.

Ditto.  I've started looking for "Rock Action" and/or "Young Team" (?),
which I've seen listed as good places to start.

Does anyone have any comments (good or bad) about the post-rock joint
articles/audio shows I've been doing on www.aural-innovations.com?  I'm
working on Part Three right now (which will include a track each from gybe!
and Sigur Ros, amongst others in the 'droney-post-rock' camp) which should
appear in January.  I don't know if I'm clarifying what's going on in that
camp, or making it more confusing....I'm still trying to find out for myself
actually.

BTW, I never really talked about gybe!'s show in Columbus (Ohio State campus).
It was sold out (I hardly ever go to a sold-out show these days!), so it
hardly seems like they need 'pub.', so I didn't bother.  They did the two
tracks from "Slow Riot..." which were both brilliant and powerful, esp. when
they get into that semi-featureless sonic-carpet-bombing mode.  But then the
stuff from the other albums (like the new one, "Lift Yr. Skinny Fists...")
just isn't the same - eerie and melancholy, but never the same sorts of
climaxes.  I'd like them to release a live album, so that I could hear the
track "BBF3" without the silly voiceover bit, as they don't use that
on-stage.  So I guess I'm of the opinion that gybe! is both vasty overrated
and vastly underrated at the same time.  I mean, inventive and original
bands like this should play to more than 400 people, but that'll never
happen, and these 400 people should also be going to see bands that I think
are even more inventive and original.  Instead of 50.

Grakkl (FAA)