Explosions In The Sky - The Rescue (Temporary Residence Limited)

None of the bombast and dynamics that infest much of post rock here. Instead it's all very quiet and low-key. Delicate little songs. This drifted past me largely unnoticed on the first few listens, but over the course of a month or two of occasional listening it's really grown on me. The unobtrusive beauty of the songs brings them alive and calls for repeated listens. Simple but lovely.

'The Rescue' was released as part of Temporary Residence Limited's Travels In Constants EP series in October 2005.

Explosions In The Sky

Paul Metzger - Three Improvisations On Modified Banjo (Chairkicker's Union)

Definately a case of "does what it says on the tin". Three long solo pieces for banjo. Not sure what the modifications are, but then I have very little idea what an unmodified banjo would sound like. Often busy, driving improvisations, not quite duelling banjos, but certainly full of energy most of the time. Not too different from solo guitar, but with the higher register and twang giving it a classical or spanish guitar feel, especially with the little trills, and the precussive element added by the fingers or plectrum hitting the body of the banjo. Certainly enough going on to sustain interest over the nearly 60 minute running time. The sound of the banjo is surprisingly easy to listen to, I would perhaps have expected it to be more grating or tiring. Like this quite a bit. It's an interesting companion to the large amounts of solo guitar work I've been listening to recently and sits very well alongside the likes of John Fahey, Jack Rose and Steffen Basho-Junghans.

'Three Improvisations On Modified Banjo' was released on Low's Chairkicker's Union label in 2005.

Paul Metzger

An interim solution

I have a dream of a website containing my thoughts on all the music I have and listen to. Somewhere where, when I listen to an album, I can write about it; describe it, discuss it, love it, hate it.
For now, this is the interim solution. I only hope that creating this will inspire me to write, however shoddily, and that I will be pushed to listen more actively and more closely, and to think harder about what I listen to.