:: Track Listing

1. The Voice Is Dead
2. 34 Stories Of Ana Mendieta
3. We Have Illegal Weapons
4. Sic
5. Save Me You Can’t Save Me
6. Don’t Move
7. This Will Be Expensive
8. Amber
9. Frozen Machines

:: Record Review

Kalpana

Hors de Combat
(Redder Records; 2004)

Rating: 80%
Combined Rating: 78%


I was going to start this review off with a personal history of post-rock and what it means to me, etc., but then I looked at our site's review of Explosions in the Sky, and remembered that it pretty aptly summed up my feelings on the stunted genre. Outside of Slint’s remarkable Spiderland (1991) and Mogwai’s epic Young Team (1997), the whole post-rock scene just strikes me as a little tired, way too serious and extremely, extremely formulaic. If ever a genre was screaming, begging and pleading for an innovator, it’s post-rock. The aforementioned Explosions in the Sky may give us something truly innovative someday, and they’re certainly off to a good start, even if they’re not quite there yet. If not EITS, then who? Perhaps Kalpana can lead the charge.

With guitars that rage, soar, crawl, shimmer, mellow and explode, Kalpana works with the ingredients that most post-rockers know and love. The thing that seems to set them apart is, though I'm sure you've heard this a thousand times before, a unique understanding of dynamics and songwriting; meaning, rather than chug along to the patented formula of “start really quiet, more quiet, a few samples, quiet, a little louder, little louder, getting pretty loud, GUITAR EXLPOSION IN YOUR FACE!!!,” Kalpana attempt to write songs instead of spending their time performing the same template in a different key. And it’s actually quite refreshing. I mean, I like Godspeed You! Black Emperor and all, but did they ever veer off that one formula? It certainly didn’t seem like it.

So, yes, Kalpana write songs; songs that don’t bow down to any one over-arching formula, and as a result, the sound is surprisingly varied and dynamic. When a band can conjure thoughts of Radiohead at one moment and My Bloody Valentine or Mogwai during another in the very same song while still holding their own, they've at least graduated from mere formulaic imitation into far more ambitious territory. They do just that on the abrupt “Sic.” With bells complementing the driving guitars and shards of sound on “Save Me You Can’t Save Me,” Kalpana peaks and creates something that is inexplicably infinite sounding. Their guitars range from sounding like the melodic, soaring work of, say, James Iha, to the driving tones of post-rock's past, and even the impressive dynamics of recent Sonic Youth releases.

“This Will Be Expensive,” another album highlight, even features frenetic drumming and, though not so much an anomaly of the genre as much as rarely being used effectively, vocals. In fact, the only time Kalpana lose me is on the penultimate track, “Amber," which is most tied to stereotypical post-rock formulas and song structures. It’s still good, to be fair, but it’s time to move on, Kalpana---especially since you prove yourself more than capable of it.

Hors de Combat is an impressive and at times bewildering combination of melodic, sharp, crashing, searing and soaring dynamics that constantly stays fresh. Kalpana is the most economic epic band to come along in quite some time; they also don’t usually drone their songs on too long, but rather keep it short and to the point---and it works marvelously. It's this utilization of the familiar post-rock form without relying on it that makes Hors de Combat work where so many others have failed.

It seems to me what people first loved about post-rock was that it was basically jam bands imposing a rigid structure on their jams, and while that was great for a while, it’s essentially a limiting exercise. Kalpana is not a jam band, they write songs that happen to recall the very best that post-rock has to offer, while also borrowing from groups that do not, and have not, had anything to do with the genre. I’m in complete agreement with Scott’s EITS review that the genre needs to either move on, or we need to create a new banner for impressive acts like Kalpana to thrive and expand their sound under. In the meantime, just go buy their record and rock like its 1997. Sean Ford :: 03 August 2004 |