Part IV of the UK series.

On its way to picking up some bands from more exotic locations, Tracking the Trends revists the UK's blooming independent scene.

Blueneck
Bristol

Website: Blueneck
Music: Myspace

The members of Blueneck describe themselves as "reclusive," much preferring the comfort of the studio to the cold, prying eyes of the live stage. However, reports of the band's live show are never anything short of spectacular, and with a stellar debut album out in 2006, one wonders why this band isn't receiving more press. Scars of the Midwest is a terribly haunting album, and I emphasize the terribly. Blueneck leads most of its songs by way of the piano, where gloomy keys set a chilling precedent for the band's despondent sound. Heavy, swirling atmospherics fill the rest of the band's sound, supplemented with vocals on occasion to add a lingering humanistic quality to the music which is engulfed in the dreary landscape as soon as its creation. On many levels, I find it extremely difficult to describe Scars of the Midwest. This intelligent, thought-provoking album terrifies the listener into submission, repeatedly attacking with a cascade of emotion and overwhelming sonic tension. This is music that speaks; this is music that truly has a voice and desires to take on a life of its own. The album is stuffed with delights, something that has quickly made this one of my favorites of the year. Be it the subtle force of "Judas! Judas!", the eerie feel of "Oig", or the cathartic release of "Epiphany," Scars of the Midwest stops at nothing to deliver an album so ethereal that its transcendence is undeniable from the start. While other instrumental acts make a stake at pursuing the organic side of their craft, Blueneck takes it to an entirely different plane--one that you might have never known existed.

Blueneck does a very good job at hiding its influences behind its cutting originality and incredible depth. However, the quartet has listened to its fair share of Mogwai and adopted the forceful linear instrumental aspect of its sound, in addition to borrowing Sigur Ros otherworldly feel. Blueneck is a bit of a hit or miss band, some might be confused by the band's style and miss the subtler aspects of its music, but those who do find the band to be compelling will most likely fall head over heels for this band.


These Monsters
Leeds

Website: These Monsters
Music: Myspace

These Monsters was quite a head-turner for me. One day I found myself sitting in my room attending my course-work and delving into a algebraic topology problem set. I had queued up a few albums on my computer to accompany me, and These Monsters was one of those bands. An album or two later, the band's debut EP filled my room with beautiful music, and for twenty minutes I was completely captivated in the warm embrace of the music. In retrospect, it must have been the saxophone. You'll come across a lot of instruments used by instrumental bands, but very few of them harness the distinct sound of These Monsters. But, take away the saxophone from the band's music and you still have three epic songs that are impressive all by themselves. A dash of programming is added to the mix, which somehow doesn't detract from the band's naturally jazz oriented sound. The first two songs, "Nice Day to Start a War" and "Night of the Storm", function similarly. Both start with a heavy ambient guitar approach and slowly recede into a warm, jazzy ending with the sax at the lead. The transitions are seamless, and the band plays it like it has been doing this for years. The last track, "Dust and Ivy" is really something else. This time the track starts off very soft, but ambient soft, not jazz soft, and builds like a traditional post-rock song. Around the halfway mark the guitars fire, bringing the saxophone along for the ride. And they dance–spectacularly at that. Over and over These Monsters deliver a crashing landscape of deft intensity and unparalleled creativity. As far as debut releases go, few are as stunning or ambitious as These Monsters.

I'm hard pressed to align These Monsters with another UK band, because frankly there aren't any other UK artists I've heard doing anything remotely similar. In that aspect, they join the ranks of 65 Days of Static and Blueneck for outright creativity. However, I do feel a certain sense of Australian influence among the band's sounds. At times you can hear some of The Necks or Silver Ray, but again, it's unlikely that These Monsters has any formal experience with bands located on the other side of the world. In any case, relish in the fact that another spectacular band has joined the ranks of the UK's blooming independent instrumental scene. This is one we'll surely make room for.


Let Airplanes Circle Overhead
Carlisle

Website: LACO
Music: Myspace

Motive Sounds Recordings presents the debut album from Let Airplanes Circle Overhead, which contains over forty minutes of blistering instrumental rock. Like several of its predecessors, LACO punishes with a heavy bass and a plethora of feedback and distortion. The opening track, "Pentagross" starts off innocently enough, but after about four minutes the band drops the pristine sounds for a gritty, aggressive edge that shakes the foundations of the band's music. A short segue later, the band returns with "Fury Against the Formless", which charges out of the gate with an cacophony of distortion and a dose of brutal drumming to anchor the restless beast. A track this unrelenting could only be attempted by a band in the early stages of its career, before it gets the need to settle down and mature, and "Fury Against the Formless" is a immaculate representation of the raw energy and devotion of this young band to its craft, much like Mogwai exhibited back in the early days of its career. Of course, not everything the band touches navigates down the quiet/loud path like "Petagoss" and "Fury Against the Formless". "I Laughed Hard I Stopped Laughing" and "Rwanda" focus more on guitar interaction and song writing, dropping the brute force approach and instead reworking the band's sound to a more harmonious level. "Rwanda" is perhaps the strongest track on the band, which demonstrates a healthy integration of the aggressive edge of the band with a conscious song-writing mentality. The last track, "Hired Guns of the West" clocks in at over 12 minutes, and the track length is a good indicator of its mammoth sound. Half of the song builds up slowly and nicely to a five minute finale of pure energy and emotion. Let the Airplanes Circle Overhead pull out all the stops as the album winds down, unwinding in an experimental, exhaustive approach that is much telling of the genre, but even more so of the band's bright future.

Although Let Airplanes Circle Overhead doesn't offer a lot of sounds which we haven't previously heard from the likes of Mogwai, Pelican, or Mono, this young band does a marvelous job of making it look relatively easy. It's clear that this band has more talent than it knows what to do with, and I'm confident that each time we see LACO putting out a new release the band will be stretching itself in new and creative ways. Let the debut album serve as evidence that LACO knows its roots and knows how to work within the arena that its predecessors have established. But don't expect the band to stop there, because its always the young ones that redefine what it is to be creative.


Maybeshewill
Leicester

Website: Maybeshewill
Music: Myspace

This was one of my most anticipated releases of 2006. When I found out about Maybeshewill in 2005 and had sampled a few of its songs, I knew this band was onto something good. Maybeshewill travels the road less traveled. It travels down the same path as 65 Days of Static, the path that fuses together post-rock with electronica and doesn't apologize for the rough edges. After the wide critical acclaim that 65 Days of Static has amassed in the past few years, I've often wondered why more bands haven't ventured down this experimental avenue. Perhaps the critics are just overly pleased with this band, and not the public at large. I tested out this thought as I talked to several instrumental bands over the past year, and most of them agree--this post-rock/electronica thing is awesome, and 65 Days of Static is paving a new road for emerging artists. Maybeshewill is one of these artists, but it is immediately careful not to simply rehash the work of 65 Days of Static. Generally, Maybeshewill isn't as glitchy as 65DoS, and they are much handier with the keyboard. The band's debut EP, Japense Spy Transcript, contains four tracks and a few hidden bonuses. The first rack, "He Films the Clouds," is very reminiscent of 65 Days of static, with very tranquil keys layered over a web of glitches. However, by the second track, Maybeshewill is branching off into new territory. "The Paris Hilton Sex Tape" fights back with a guitar heavy lead while the keys dance in the background. Heavy bass lines rip open the sonic landscape open at the seams and present the band in its raw form. "In Another Life, When We Were Cats" returns back to the 65DoS formula, mixing keys with electronic sounds and slowly building up towards the full instrumental sound of the band. The real charm is found in the title track, which shows the band finally getting their footing into the genre and playing comfortably with the tools they have. "Japanese Spy Transcript" begins with glitches layered over a guitar line and runs smoothly into the embrace of the keyboard. The sounds intertwine, mingling in a harmonious balance until the band comes full force into a warm embrace. The embraces tightens to the point of suffocation, where the track quickly dissolves. It's a brief encounter--a mere four minutes in length, but it's a sign that Maybeshewill is staking out its own territory.

It was a sad day when earlier in the year Maybeshewill announced that it would no longer be making music anymore. But, it was overwhelmed with joy a few weeks ago when the band retracted the statement and said they would continue to evolve as Maybeshewill. New territory needs new pioneers, and this band shows that it is up to the task, following in the footsteps of 65 Days of Static but not following the path too closely. As long as this band is able to extinguish the internal fires that rage within the walls of Maybeshewill, the clears are looking pretty clear for experimentation.


They Don't Sleep
London

Website: They Don't Sleep
Music: Myspace

Every once in awhile I come across a band that has some aspects to it that I really like, and others that I find strictly annoying. London's They Don't Sleep does a fantastic job at creating piano-backed post-rock, but on the occasion that vocals enter the picture, it is a highly detracting from the beautiful music already established. However, vocals aside, the band's 2005 demo is full of ambient guitar rock highlighted with specks of keyboards. Spread across four tracks, They Don't Sleep concentrates its effort at building serene passages, apply subtle, yet constant pressure to its structures, and allowing the surmounting force the penetrate deep into the sonic landscape. The keys add to this percolating effect, drawing together a complete picture of the rather cerebral feel of the band. Many times on the demo the band reaches some pretty spectacular zeniths. "The Others," "...And then there was No One," and "Scarecrows" all contains fantastic scenery. Most notably, the conclusion to "The Others" breaches the breaking point, which would be a marvelous finale to the album, but again, the vocals bring it down a notch or two. But, the potential is there--They Don't Sleep have a really fine touch for its craft and is working towards a more meaningful musical experience.

Probably my favorite aspect of They Don’t Sleep is that the band has a huge amount of room to experiment in. This is a band that could easily adopt a wide array of instruments into its sound. I can see this band utilizing strings, horns, or electronics in future tracks, and maybe even a combination of all of them. While the band doesn't specifically aim for an orchestral sound, I can see it moving in that direction in the future, supplemented with the heavier rock aspects of its earlier work. In any case, They Don't Sleep is a band to watch, great things might develop from this young band.


~Jordan Volz