Post-rock is a done-to-death description but as a semaphore of intent it still serves a certain purpose. First coined by music-journo Simon Reynolds as a term to describe progressive music “using rock instrumentation for non-rock purposes, using guitars as facilitators of timbre and textures rather than riffs and power chords”, its use was rapidly spread during the 90s by breathless writers suddenly overwhelmed by seemingly-infinite possible music-futures. Reynolds further expounded:

perhaps the really provocative area for future development lies… in cyborg rock; not the wholehearted embrace of Techno’s methodology, but some kind of interface between real time, hands-on playing and the use of digital effects and enhancement.


… which in itself has turned out to be suitably ambitious, as in general attempts at an amalgam of real-time instrumentation and digital frippery have turned out to be a big horrible mess (with notable exceptions, of course).

However some have managed to find a kinda cautious way-forward through this experimental minefield, and on Saturday night four progressive musical groups take four individual post-rockin’ approaches to deconstructing sound within the codified meta-language of rock music:

…some of Wellington’s greatest rock explorers…

The Postures will have you shakin’ yer booty and shaking in your boots with their disco/doom rhythms combined with piercing tones and a punk delivery. The Stumps are quite possibly the Grateful Dead for the 21st century… noxious jazz-fusion is administered a good spanking to within an inch of the (current) law. Join The Dukes of Leisure on an idler’s stroll through huge spaces of gentle melodies surrounded by walls of violent and engulfing noise. And Black Boned Angel is über-ambient doom-metal created from massively overdriven instruments… the aural equivalent of a tequila and opiates-bender followed by a five-day crying jag.

SATURDAY APRIL 14th
SAN FRANCISCO BATH-HOUSE
10$

The last Black Boned Angel performance: