So the post-rock gods decided that at the end of 2025, two British bands released some particularly dark-sounding and awe-inspiring albums. I've covered Civil Service here and now I NEED to drop something about Last of Eden aka L.O.E. Maybe it's the zeitgeist, but if it means that we're going to get so good and poignant albums then... Well, then there is at least one bright side of what's going on.
Another common feature with Civil Service is the main theme of the album, as it is a "cinematic exploration of duality—the contrasts between light and dark, despair and hope". What is so striking about this quotation is that it is all clearly audible in music. The dark-sounding guitars, overwhelming and touching, tell the story that inspired the band, the personal struggles of their bassist who has serious problems with his health, but still makes everything to go on and win against all odds with sheer determination. The heaviness of this music with occasional samples and slower moments is a perfect illustration for what a human existence feels like more often than not.
The band is coming for this year's Dunk!Festival and I'm more than happy to witness this music live. Oh and the aforementioned music gods also decided to have two post-rock albums last year that included the same quotation from Alan Watts (writer, researcher of the Eastern philosophies) with All Is Violent being first in July. So that's fun, isn't it?
This year I already posted about ARIMA, melodic and noisy guitar rock music from Spain, but not really as they are from the Basque Country. Now I have The Lions Constellation, melodic and noisy guitar music from Spain, but not really as they are from Catalonia. It took 15 years (!) for the band to release their second album, but I'm gonna call it: it was really worth it.
I love shoegaze music that can impress with the noisy side and the catchy side as well. When listen to this album, released last autumn (I still haven't caught up with the new year releases!), I can hear exactly this. Take Allison for example: obviously the first thing I checked was if it was a cover, but no: and instead of focusing on the other Allison's hazy atmosphere, it presents a fantastic melody and catchy flow that makes it closer to the third Allison, the one from The Kills. It's a banger and still isn't my favourite one here.
The very shoegaze-like atmosphere is, on the other, the main focus in some spaces too, especially in When You Dream, which HAS TO be a reference to When You Sleep, right? Same vibes. But the melodic, hit-heavy shoegaze generally overshadows anything else on the album with A Long Life Is Not a Real Life being my favourite song here as it features my beloved way of using guitars in noisy music genres.
Ah, yes, some high-brow entertainment! The Taiwanese small orchestra that features violin, cello, piano keys and an acoustic guitar, came back with another brillant release (there's too many for me to count, really) that transforms geography into music and feels as artistic as mysterious.
The band is around for over 15 years now. In this time, the band "has woven Taiwan’s mountains, seas, and landscapes into sound". This time, the geographical inspirations are broader as the artists draw inspiration from the wintery sceneries of Iceland, Greenland or New Zealand. The cold, the ice, the whiteness, it's all enchanted into classical music notes. However, it's not like we are served with droney white noise, quite the opposite, there is a lot going on. Perhaps not something I'd associate with the winter stillness, but maybe the inspirations were rather subtle.
"Through delicate sound and moments gathered on the road, Cicada turns the disappearance of eternal landscapes into intimate encounters between music and listener". And the music in questions is particularly magical.
They released their debut album in 2024 and now are following it with the sophomore album or maybe a continuation of the first one. They are from UK, but are not Public Service Broadcasting side project (even if some of the samples suggest so). Civil Service is a band I did not have on my radar, but my post-rock society turned my attention to.
And it's such a good thing they did. The new album begins in the best way possible: with a collaboration with Overhead, the Albatross' Luke Daly on vocals. But even when he leaves the track list, some parallels to my favourite British post-rockers are still audible (the child speaking in Black Giraffes for examples), although this is more classic post-rock than the one featured on I Leave You This. But it's not *THAT* traditional. The beautiful violin soundscapes complimenting the heavy guitars work like charm, the inclusion of samples and vocals enriches the composition while the subtle electronica provides the final touch.
As mentioned already, DARK /// is a continuation of the themes from /// LIGHT, but while the debut album was focused on the humankind's main quest in life: finding something that could be seen as a meaning of existence, the second album "shifts focus to the immovable obstacles in our way". The way the guitars sound feels so dark (Every Beam Of Light Is An Invitation To Death!!!) to me and dark post-rock is what I want. I love this album, if I have found it earlier, it'd certainly make my AOTY charts.
They've been releasing singles since 2023 and now it's time for their debut album (which, honestly, is way a better tie line than many other bands). Glimmer (what an awesome shoegaze name!) are from New York and Get Weak showcases how fluent with hazy and loud music they are.
If I had a sheet with features of a perfect shoegaze album, this one would check all of them. The guitars build thick walls of sound that, additionally, has tendency to sound pretty rough on the edges (yeah, that's where all the grungegaze tags come from!). The songs are melodic and catchy. The vocals hazy and soft (with a hint of Americana in them? Or am I hallucinating things?). It's music that takes as much from the garage rock-and-roll as it does from the ethereal genres. My preference is when they shift into higher gear while maintaining the nice level of haziness.
When posting about their debut album, the band stated "We put everything we had into this record. There were moments of pure joy and sadness during the process, but it was well worth it, and we’re stoked for you to hear". And I have to say, it really was worth it.
The Australian project SEIMS is an exciting answer to a dilemma: can post-rock music be artsy and atmospheric at the same time. Yes it can. The band that is usually connected to such genres as math rock and post-rock, released their probably fourth album called V, four years after another great release: their probably third album called Four. MATH rock. Q.E.D.
Jokes aside, although their music is mostly instrumental and very much guitar-focused, it's difficult o call them "simply post-rock". The complexity of their compositions and the approach characterized by melodic, isolated guitar sequences (I know it's not true, but those make me think of some flamenco or fado music in some places) suggest to me that we deal with art rock that somehow has been deprived of vocals along the process. But then, the artsy is suddenly overwhelmed by the loud and heavy, making a perfect case for art-post-rock music.
A separate word should be said about Forever the Optimist, my highlight of the album. I love how it starts with slower, elaborate guitar dance and slowly growing into the energetic finish fueled by chanting, a rare sight on the release. It also sums up the overall mood of the album: in the times when post-rock (and really all the music I listen to) gets dark and apocalyptic, the sound here is bright and optimistic. And if I like it like this, it's a sign that it's very well done.
Sasha Pushkin and Jegor Mickiewicz have been living in Poland for years, creating their artistic in form and unsettling in message music as Flower and Pines. Their socially (though not politically) engaged yet poetic lyrics evoke post-punk sensibility, but their guitar-heavy music, which doesn't shy away from truly noisy moments, places them somewhere in the realm of post-rock. And if so, this is one of my favorite post-rock projects in the country. I managed to talk with Sasha, Jegor, and their new drummer, Anton, during their December concert at Krakow's Oliwa pub. How does their nationality influence their music? Is the new album meant to be still a warning or already a commentary? And what does minimalism mean in their music?
ŁŚ: I'll start by quoting a bit from Wikipedia: "Poet of transformations, Slavic bard," "classic of Russian and world literature," that's about Mickiewicz and Pushkin. Those are quite big shoes to step into, aren't they? Did you choose so ambitiously on purpose?
Sasha Pushkin: No, no, Mickiewicz is Jegor's real surname! And Pushkin is just a nickname.
ŁŚ: So, Jegor, do you have Polish roots? Or is that a Belarusian surname?
Jegor Mickiewicz: Here it's considered that I have Polish roots. My paternal family comes from the parts of western Belarus that changed hands multiple times. THAT Mickiewicz was also from those regions.
ŁŚ: So you're the family of the Great Bard?
JM: Well, there are a lot of Mickiewiczes there. In Poland, the surname Mickiewicz isn't that common, but there, it's quite the opposite.
ŁŚ: So it's a complete coincidence? Incredible. But at the same time, Flower and Pines' lyrics are heavily based on plot, on stories, practically like literary works. Do you feel any connection to the Romantic literature? Because I see some connections.
JM: Yes, yes. I write our lyrics. Of course, it has nothing to do with my surname being Mickiewicz, but I've simply always liked literature and poetry. There might be something to do with Romanticism, but I can't say I draw any specific inspiration from this or that literary genre.
ŁŚ: I even see something Romanticism-related in the band's name: Flower and Pines. The symbolism of nature, that sort of thing. Where did your name come from?
SP: We wanted it to be like the title of a painting in a museum.
JM: To present the title of a painting without any details of the work itself. So that the listener could figure out the details themselves. I also think there were some inspirations from black metal symbolism. Pine trees, conifers. They remind me of...
SP: A Norwegian forest. Darkthrone! (laughter)
ŁS: I have another reference to the historical figures of Mickiewicz and Pushkin: they were also known for their anti-tsarist stance. Mickiewicz, of course, but so was Pushkin, at least at the beginning.
JM: Exactly, but later not so much. But it won't be like that with us, don't be afraid! (laughter)
ŁŚ: But I wanted to ask, do you see yourselves as, let's say, rebels against the modern-day tsars?
SP: Against the entire world in a sense. Against all evil, while supporting all that is good. It might sound silly, but that's how I would put it. It's not about a specific "tsar," but about things in the world we disagree with.
JM: I rather see it this way: you can't see any specific worldview in our music. What do we think about any specific politician, for example. When you listen to our music, it's like watching a historical film and you can choose which side you're on. You can choose whether you're for this particular thing or against it.
SP: Or maybe is it about you?
JM: Exactly.
ŁS: But we can't escape the fact that you're from Belarus. And that it's some kind of a commentary on the situation there.
JM: Yes, yes, of course.
ŁŚ: Especially the Hnieŭ EP, on which you sing in Belarusian. Was it created with a specific event in mind? Or simply as a reaction to the situation in Belarus?
JM: More likely, simply as a reaction to all of this. We wrote Hnieŭ, which means "anger" in English, when things were at their most intense. We recorded what we felt then. It's not an anthem, not a hymn. It's not like we're saying: "Hey! We're going to the barricades!" I think that, to some extent, it's like a panikhida (a funeral service in Eastern Rite Christian Churches - ŁŚ), like a requiem. We're saying that we know what it was like there and how deeply we feel about it.
ŁŚ: Do you have any signs that you're being listened to in Belarus? That you're being noticed?
JM: Yes, we know that we're being listened to in Belarus, but... In reality, there are very few people left in Belarus who could listen to us. Who could be our audience. Many of them already live somewhere in Europe.
SP: In fact, we haven't lived in Belarus for a long time; we left before the worst happened. So maybe we simply don't exactly know what's going on there. Although there are still some people who listen to us there.
Anton Betson: I can also add that there are Belarusian media outlets online that write about us. About the existence of this band and its music, but not in a political context.
JM: Especially since the release of our last album.
ŁŚ: Right, this year you released the album Unconditional Love, which includes my favorite song of the year, Dogs. The entire album, as you describe it, presents a dystopian picture. Each track is poignant, showing a sense of helplessness in the face of oppressive power, but I feel it most strongly in Dogs. This song describes the attitude of an individual hounded by the regime, by the society in which they live. You describe it, but you don't comment on whether such an attitude is wrong or maybe understandable.
SP: I think all comments must come not from the creator, but from the listeners, because every person has their own story, so the message will never be the same for everyone.
JM: You know, with Dogs, the song itself is about how there's no side to choose. It's about how, when you live under a regime, you're both a policeman and a victim. Everything changes: today you're looking for someone who disagrees with the regime, and tomorrow they come after you.
SP: It's normal that we all have something bad and something good inside us. Today you do good things, tomorrow you do bad things. That's human nature.
ŁŚ: When I listen to Unconditional Love, I wonder if you see it as a warning about a situation that might arise, or more as a commentary on what's actually happening?
JM: Both. We're from a country that, in our lifetimes, has always been the way it is now; sometimes it was just a little better, sometimes a little worse. But now it's the hardest, it's like in those dystopian books. And what's happening in Poland doesn't look particularly good either, right? Of course, it's in no way comparable to what's happening in our country, but the intentions themselves are a bit terrifying.
ŁŚ: So do you think that it's possible that the situation in Poland will actually get close to what's happening in Belarus?
JM: We're not saying it will, we just know that these things happen very quickly.
SP: In an instant, you can find yourself in a completely different place than you were yesterday.
JM: That's why it's terrifying. So it's both a warning and a reflection on what we already know.
SP: It's always like that. When World War II ended, everyone kept repeating all this advice about remembering, because as long as you remember, you won't do the same shit again. But when you finally forget, suddenly: good morning! (laughter)
ŁŚ: This whole album is quite terrifying. Was that the intention?
JM: I think so. But it wasn't as if I said, "Sasha, come on, let's do something terrifying!" It was just that during the making of the album, it turned out that this was the only way we could do it.
SP: I think it was some kind of unformulated feeling somewhere inside us, we just saw that we had to choose these options, create these sounds. But we didn't agree to do it this way. It just happened that way.
ŁŚ: The album title is... It's ironic, right?
SP: No.
JM: To some extent, yes.
SP: Well, actually to some extent, but I would say irony is the last thing on my mind when I think about it.
JM: First of all, that phrase appears at the end of the song Act of Historical Justice. It's about a lie, it's about 2+2 equaling 5, about us saying we're here to help you. This war is there to prevent more wars, this repression is there to make things better for you. This is love, but you don't understand it yet.
SP: That's just how it is in this world. And it's not ironic, it's more sad than ironic.
JM: Another thing is that this phrase doesn't apply only to this song. In all the songs on the album, there's something about love. It can be different. For example, in Jerusalem, the lyrical subject also feels some kind of love, love for this place for which blood is shed. That, too, is love.
SP: So this is an album about love?
JM: Yes, yes, about love that can be very different.
ŁŚ: Someone who picked up the album just by looking at the title probably wouldn't expect it to be like that inside. It's filled with pessimism (or perhaps realism, since you're commenting on reality), but do you see any reason for optimism beyond that? Is there a place for it in music?
SP: There's definitely a place for it, but maybe it's not the right time yet.
JM: I don't see a place for it in music. Even my mother often asks me that. Do you…
SP: When will you play about happy things? (laughter)
JM: That's exactly what she asked me a few weeks ago: are you and Sasha doing anything new, and will it be a bit more optimistic? To which I replied that I don't know. Because I see no reason to be optimistic; everything seems to be getting worse. I just feel utter pessimism.
SP: We'll see how it goes, because we're only in the middle of recording a new album! Maybe something will change! (laughter)
ŁŚ: So there's already a plan for the next album? Are you planning to release it next year?
JM: It would be great if it were next year, but things can happen, who knows.
ŁŚ: I'd like to return to optimism for a moment. Do you hope to go to Belarus for a concert someday?
JM: It might happen someday. All those people there won't live forever! They might think that way, but it's impossible. So I hope we'll go someday. The problem is, not only we can't go there for a concert. We can't go there at all. So when I think about Belarus, it's not primarily about wanting to play there. I just want to see this place again.
ŁŚ: You recently changed the band's lineup. Now you're playing as a foursome. Is it very different from your perspective? There's a video on YouTube titled "We have finally become a four piece band", as if you were really looking forward to it.
SP: I'd say maybe we weren't "waiting," but we're definitely happy. Our music just sounds a bit different when we're on stage as a duo than when we're playing as a foursome now. I think Jegor was more keen on changing that; I wasn't as enthusiastic about the idea back then, but now I like it.
JM: It's definitely harder, because when we were just two people, we had to communicate only with each other. And with four people, you have to manage things more. But yes, I really wanted it because I thought there were certain things that would simply sound better with more people. Now that we're playing as a foursome, you can hear more space in our sound.
AB: I went to concerts when Sasha and Yegor were playing as a duo and I thought to myself, "Wow, what will it sound like when there's real drums and bass?"
ŁŚ: You're playing a few shows with Spoiwo and Jo Quail next year. Spoiwo is an icon of Polish post-rock, and Jo Quail is associated with many artists in this genre; she played with God Is an Astronaut, for example. Do you feel any connection to this genre at all?
SP: It's definitely one of the genres we like, especially me. Back in Belarus, I played in two bands: Challenger Deep, which is more post-metal, and Marie Chante, which is more of a screamo band, but with post-rock elements.
JM: You could say Sasha really has post-rock roots. I hadn't listened to that genre before.
SP: I've unlocked it in you!
JM: I've been a Swans fan for a long time, but it might not be exactly seen as post-rock. I started discovering true post-rock bands for myself when we started Flower and Pines.
ŁS: I can understand that, I think post-rock conveys a lot of content and emotion using instruments, but you write lyrics, and it's them that are very emotional and poetic.
JM: I think there's a connection there, yes. I started listening to instrumental music quite late in life. I always wanted lyrics, someone singing.
ŁŚ: At this point, you're conveying messages and emotions through both words and music. Do you think it's possible to combine the two in one project?
JM: We have no problem combining this. In fact, when we started our band, I thought there wouldn't really be much vocals. In bands, I've always been more of a vocalist, but here I wanted to play guitar and do something more instrumental, so the vocals would be more of an addition, but it turned out a bit differently.
ŁŚ: Sure. I asked about this because the description of your music, I think on Spotify, says that you create minimalist music. I, for one, don't hear that at all.
JM: Oh, because it's about minimalism in composition.
SP: Exactly. If we were doing something more complicated, we'd achieve a different goal than we intended. A minimalist approach to composition allows listeners to experience a certain feeling throughout the composition, for example, several times. This allows us to finally grasp its meaning, I think.
JM: For example, if we don't change a chord throughout the entire piece, then...
SP: It's kind of the foundation. If we assume that one song is a story, then that one chord is the foundation upon which everything happens. And then maybe you add different scenes, different characters who do something, something happens, but that foundation doesn't change until the end.
JM: I think I'm not lying if I say that we also want our music to sound a bit trance-like, so that you can get carried away by that trance. That's why when we talk about minimalism, it's simply about composition, but in arrangements, it can be completely eclectic.
ŁŚ: Well, that wall of sound does appear from time to time! Lyrically, you also repeat the same motifs and phrases, for example in Dogs. It can also have a trance-like effect.
JM: When we were making Dogs, we didn't have that goal in mind at the beginning.
SP: I would say that when creating our songs, we first think about how their elements would work together to form a cohesive whole. Although we didn't agree on any specific goal, we still felt deep inside how we wanted our songs to sound.
JM: Plus, I've had this feeling since childhood that when I hear something cool, I want it to just repeat and repeat and repeat. I often feel sad that a cool moment only appeared once.
SP: All these little things maintain the atmosphere of this trance.
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