What are we going to do so far from here? This is the question posed by French post-rocker Julien (My Own True Desire, Atlantic Drop), whose seventeen-track compilation brings new attention to a huge French underground. We’ve encountered a few of these artists before, but the majority are new to us. The whole point of such a compilation is to help people to discover artists similar to those they already enjoy – a more accurate form of recommendations from Rhapsody, Pandora or any impersonal search engine. In this category, the compilation is an easy success. Add the fact that the compilation is nearly two hours long, and is offered in the “Name Your Price” format, and it’s a slam dunk.
As in most projects of this type, we find a wide range of entries: standouts, average cuts and misses. We prefer to be positive, so we’re going to concentrate on the standouts. The very first cut, Puzzle’s “Piece V”, is one of these, a perfect example of a post-rock track done well. The track begins quietly, then moves into a sweet surge of guitars and military snares. A feather-down interlude follows, leading to the expected ascension. God Made Humanity’s “The birth, the death” carries the candle of The Echelon Effect with a touch of U2. Exilym’s “Man never went to the moon” features benign piano patterns offset by electronic crunches and ominous guitars. And the album’s sirloin cut, The Forks’ “II”, is heavy on the shoe-tapping, head-nodding percussion, with superlative mastering and a memorable bloom. These last three tracks clock in at 3:51, 3:56 and 3:12, and would each make fine post-rock singles, defying the common expectation that post-rock tracks need to be long in order to be effective. The longest track, Rome Buyce Night’s “Basile” (14:39!), takes its time by setting a piano base, slowly builds to the two-thirds mark, and ends up being jazzy and impressionistic ~ although it does end loudly. This isn’t what we expect at this point of the album, but once we realize that there is a payoff, it works. Two vocal tracks stuck in the center do not fare as well, but such a statement should come as no surprise from this site.
As post-rock continues its long “it’s dead, it’s not dead” period, fans have had to work harder to discover new music. There’s a lot of it here, all in one place. What are we going to do so far from here? Hopefully we’ll continue to support the genre we love however we can. (Richard Allen)
Available here (full stream included)
a closer listen 