The folks at UK label A Cheery Wave Records have rounded up a wealth of the post-rock underground music since 2010. Volume X of their A Cheery Wave From Stranded Youngsters is an international affair, featuring bands from the USA, UK, Portugal, Finland and France. Post-rock is a catchall description for a genre that has wriggled its way into doom-metal, math-rock, ambient and pretty much any other niche that is guitar-oriented.
Philadelphia based quartet Pillars gets the ball into play with the meandering Black Prayer, after which Portland's Coastlands turn it a notch with the distorted industrial mayhem of Marrow. By way of contrast Londoners Flies Are Spies From Hell contribute the almost pastoral All The Smiles At Night. The collection's highlight is the sprawling O World! I Remain No Longer Here by Boston quintet Glacier, an exploration of the back alleys of metal and ambient. Want classical strings added to the mix? French quartet Bruit ≤ have prominent roles for cello and violin in the orchestrated, cinematic The Machine Is Burning.
Lovingly curated compilations like these offer a gateway to a band's body of work. A Cheery Wave From Stranded Youngsters offers a change to catch up on what is happening in the underground of instrumental music and it turns out that is a vibrant scene, catering to a niche of musos and adventurous music lovers. Who knows, some of it may even find its way to a bigger audience someday, as long as they are in for the long game. It took the stiffs at the Grammys fifty years to recognize the influence of The Velvet Underground.
A Cheery Wave From Stranded Youngsters: Volume X will is available here on CD (50 copies) and cassette (25 copies) and of course in unlimited various (pay-what-you-want) digital formats.
Tracks:- Pillars - Black Prayer
- Coastlands - Marrow
- Verbian - Mãe
- Codices - Machines Driving Machines
- Still Motions - Mirrors
- Flies Are Spies From Hell - All The Smiles At Night
- Glacier - O World! I Remain No Longer Here
- Baulta - My Golden Cage
- Where Mermaids Drown - One Week
- Bruit ≤ - The Machine Is Burning
HCTF review of A Cheery Wave From Stranded Youngsters: Volume IX.
