This will be a little quickie post as I overslept from the concert last night, and i’m in a bit of a hurry to get ready for work. I still have to upload pictures and stuff from the show so I probably won’t have anything from that till later tonight or tomorrow. So here’s a little something on a completely unrelated topic.
A couple of weeks ago I was browsing the Explosions In The Sky website and found that they made available their entire EP The Rescue that was released late last year. I didn’t know about it till I read it, and apparently it isn’t available in stores anymore. So head over there and download those eight songs. It’s an interesting story as the group decided to throw out the usual approach to writing and recording and went for an unique idea of constructing a song each day from scratch for a total of eight days. The entire process overall took about two weeks with the remainder of the days being used to mix and produce all the tracks. It’s very interesting, so listen to it not only because the music is excellent but because it’s FREE.
I also included a few tracks off 2003’s The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place as it’s probably one of the most beautiful and purely emotional 45 minutes of post-rock I’ve ever listened to. It’s an album I recommend to everyone, because if this music doesn’t move you in anyway then you seriously have no heart.
The Rescue EP | Download the rest of the EP along with detailed explanations about each of the tracks here.
Explosions In The Sky | “Day 1″
Day 1 is the result of us not knowing at all what to do or how any of it would turn out–disjointed and loose to the extent of being almost structureless, but also the sound of us having a lot of fun. picking up random bells laying around the house and just shaking them into a microphone. to our ears it simultaneously sounds unlike our music but also definitely like our music, if that makes any sense.
Explosions In The Sky | “Day 2″
Day 2 was when we started to attempt a sort of order to the proceedings, after the free-for-all of day 1. this day involved a role reversal: munaf played drums, trying to play a “chris” style; chris played piano, nominally in a “munaf” style; mark played bass and a “michael” style of guitar; and michael played a “mark” style of guitar. and in the main role reversal, we the instrumental band decided to sing. you can see how we felt about this as we uncontrollably start laughing in the break near the end of the song.
Explosions In The Sky | “Day 3″
Day 3’s goal was to write an ambient song. when we decided on this, each of us mentally envisioned a droning, spacious, blurred soundscape. we didn’t write it together: one person laid down the minimal keyboard drone, then the next person would come in, listen to what the first person had done, then record something over it, then the next person, etc. (we all had multiple turns). after a while it became much more busy and more atonal. as we all listened and did the preliminary mixing, it began to remind us of insanity, of going crazy. someone remarked that it reminded them of the unplanned time we spent in syracuse during our very first tour in december 2000 (when our van broke down and we ended up spending 8 dementia-filled days in the freezing attic of some guys we had never met before, who were kind enough to let us stay there; we all truly entered into some form of lunacy or another during those 8 days). someone else remarked that we should watch the videotapes that we filmed during that time in syracuse. and sometime during that viewing, we made the connection that we could add some audio samples to the song, so we did.
The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place
Explosions In The Sky | “The Only Moment We Were Alone”
Explosions In The Sky | “Your Hand In Mine”
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just stumbled upon this blog randomly – glad i did – love the tunes!
Got this last week and I love it- I’m glad blogs are getting the word out on this one.
the first time i heard explosions in the sky, i was on a bus to school. i was so blown away that i had to ask the bus driver what he was listening to…it was also my first time hearing post-rock. good stuff!