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Storm Static Sleep: A Pathway Through Post-Rock
Storm Static Sleep: A Pathway Through Post-Rock is the first publication dedicated to the story of post-rock music. As grunge and britpop ruled the airwaves in the early 90s, post-rock was a vital jolt of innovation for a world sleepwalking back towards rock tradition. Now, more than twenty years on, post-rock's mark on the cultural landscape is significant. Dedicated post-rock festivals exist across the globe and the music is commonplace in film and advertisement soundtracks. Meanwhile, the listenership has bloomed into an international community whose devotion borders on the obsessive. Despite its rise to mainstream cultural prominence, the significance of post-rock remains a subject of some controversy, with the label itself often abused as a journalistic cliche and regularly loathed by the artists tagged with it. To date there is no comprehensive account of post-rock history in either print or online. Storm Static Sleep sets the record straight. It unpicks the meaning of post-rock, tunnelling back to its origins to interrogate the journalists who championed it and the bands who renounced it. Featuring over 30 first-hand interviews with some of the most prominent names in post-rock - including members of Mogwai, Tortoise, Mono, Isis, Slint, God Is An Astronaut and producer Steve Albini - Storm Static Sleep follows one of music's most nomadic terms through every stage of its transformation.
- GenresMusicNonfiction
295 pages, Paperback
First published November 30, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
January 28, 2016
I have mixed feelings about this one. Not because I disagree with the content or I'm being all indie-schmindie music snob. Completely the opposite. As a walk through of a form of music I enjoy but know I have a lot to learn about, this is a great start. The book begins with the possible roots of the genre with Talk Talk's "Laughing Stock" and nods to any of the music from the 60s onwards that might have played a part in its inception. We then meander through the early experimental days of Pram, Stereolab, Tortoise and Bark Psychosis through to the more recognisable staples of Mogwai, GYBE, Sigur Ros and so on. I can't fault the rigorous research and personal love the author has put into this work.
However, I did find it a bit of a drag by the end. What immediately captures you is the way the author's love of the genre spills out onto the page in a series of increasingly complex extended metaphors. Entire back catalogues are explained in detail to show the trajectory of each artist and of post-rock itself. However, this means that the book becomes incredibly repetitive. After you've marvelled at the discovery of a band you'd never heard of, thanks to the twists and turns of language, and then been helped to rediscover something from the back of your record collection (for me it was Do Make Say Think and Fly Pan Am), you're left with a series of descriptions of bands you haven't heard. Like describing an unseen colour, there's only so many times that it can be done before the magic wears off. Even when he was describing bands I do know, there came a point where I was thinking "yeah, I know....I own that album". This was the problem of the medium perhaps. If you know nothing of post-rock, then you'll end up reading about something that should be heard without any in-depth cultural or social history (compare this to reading a book like "England's Dreaming" by Jon Savage, which can be enjoyed as a sociology/history book as much as a book about music). If you know a lot about post-rock then this will wear thin, as it's no more than a long conversation with an enthusiastic mutual fan telling you how great a band you already like is. If you're in the middle (like me) then the initial excitement of "wow, I must hear this band- he really loves them" turns into "another band that sounds like slow trickles of water that could break apart into ethereal nothingness? How many are there?"
A great project, a brilliant idea, but I'm not sure if it did what it was intended to do. Describing music is like coughing a maths equation. Give it a go, you might achieve it. But it will have limited appeal and success. As the whole book is based upon that premise, it gets a little dreary and repetitive. It might have been better written as an encyclopaedia to dip into rather than a series of chapters that cluster the bands together into a narrative of sorts.
However, I did find it a bit of a drag by the end. What immediately captures you is the way the author's love of the genre spills out onto the page in a series of increasingly complex extended metaphors. Entire back catalogues are explained in detail to show the trajectory of each artist and of post-rock itself. However, this means that the book becomes incredibly repetitive. After you've marvelled at the discovery of a band you'd never heard of, thanks to the twists and turns of language, and then been helped to rediscover something from the back of your record collection (for me it was Do Make Say Think and Fly Pan Am), you're left with a series of descriptions of bands you haven't heard. Like describing an unseen colour, there's only so many times that it can be done before the magic wears off. Even when he was describing bands I do know, there came a point where I was thinking "yeah, I know....I own that album". This was the problem of the medium perhaps. If you know nothing of post-rock, then you'll end up reading about something that should be heard without any in-depth cultural or social history (compare this to reading a book like "England's Dreaming" by Jon Savage, which can be enjoyed as a sociology/history book as much as a book about music). If you know a lot about post-rock then this will wear thin, as it's no more than a long conversation with an enthusiastic mutual fan telling you how great a band you already like is. If you're in the middle (like me) then the initial excitement of "wow, I must hear this band- he really loves them" turns into "another band that sounds like slow trickles of water that could break apart into ethereal nothingness? How many are there?"
A great project, a brilliant idea, but I'm not sure if it did what it was intended to do. Describing music is like coughing a maths equation. Give it a go, you might achieve it. But it will have limited appeal and success. As the whole book is based upon that premise, it gets a little dreary and repetitive. It might have been better written as an encyclopaedia to dip into rather than a series of chapters that cluster the bands together into a narrative of sorts.
April 28, 2016
Sí, el post-rock necesitaba libro intensito y ya lo tiene.
Pero más allá de ese título acertadísimo y de una portada que podría serlo también de algún disco de Envy o de Explosions in the Sky, este Storm Static Sleep de Jack Chuter es lo más parecido que uno puede encontrar a un tratado sobre el género. Una Biblia exhaustiva, un máster sobre el post-rock, con esa misma naturaleza transitoria y limítrofe que tiene el estilo.
El trabajo informativo que hay aquí es colosal. Partiendo del crítico musical Simon Reynolds, que pudo ser el primero en acuñar la expresión para referirse a “utilizar instrumentación del rock para un propósito ajeno al rock” traza una trayectoria que abarca desde finales de los 80 hasta el estado actual del género. Desde una concepción más académica del término en la que cabrían todo tipo de grupos experimentales hasta el estilo actual de canciones largas e instrumentales, de olas avasalladoras que se tragan a los propios grupos.
Dos islas al principio, una que viene desde los nuevos románticos (Talk Talk) y otra desde el punk y el hardcore (Slint) que acaban estampándose en medio del océano y tras su muerte generan un nuevo continente. En un principio una forma de jugar con la música y de liberarse del machismo del rock, de la pose y la exageración. De jugar con los silencios y la propia arquitectura del sonido. Tras ellos llegarán Disco Inferno (a los que ya no puedo parar de oír en todos sitios, desde el post-rock actual hasta cosas como MGMT o casi toda la obra de Conor Oberst), Pram, Bark Psychosis, Trans Am, Rachel’s… Grupos que en el Reino Unido y Estados Unidos se ubicaban a medias de una transformación, en el viaje perpetuo para abandonar las cadenas que les había puesto el rock.
Se hace interesantísimo leer estos primeros capítulos, mitad entrevistas con varios productores (Steve Albini) y propietarios de discográficas independientes (Vinita Joshi, casi madre de unos adolescentes Disco Inferno) y mitad tratado histórico. Consigue ubicarte en una época, los inicios de los 90, en la que cuatro pelagatos empezaban a romper los límites conocidos de su género musical, casi zánganos obligados por la música. Esa primera parte, más post que rock, deja también una tonelada de discos recomendados.
A partir de ahí llegarán un puñado de grupos (Tortoise, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Mogwai, Do Make Say Think…) que estrecharán aún más esos límites y acabarán sentando las bases del género. De tanto estrechar habrá una vuelta hacia algo más rock que post, pero que sigue en un estado intermedio, una música que se sigue buscando. Más instrumental, de desarrollos más largos, pero menos experimental que en su concepción.
Podría seguir con una lista de grupos, pero tampoco tiene mucho sentido destripar todo lo que hay aquí. Sí que al leerlo uno ve que están todos los grandes del estilo y alguna que otra apuesta personal del autor, además de dedicarle un capítulo entero al post-metal donde aparecen los necesarios Neurosis e Isis. Y al acabar una reflexión: realmente da igual tratar de definir un género que se hace difícil de atrapar. Lo importante es no perderse en elitismos y abrazarse a él como un mapa con el que recorrer el mundo musical.
Storm Static Sleep puede verse como varias cosas. Para empezar es un cofre del tesoro, un arcón donde uno puede encontrar discos y discos para varias vidas; recomendaciones con las que nunca volver a pasar frío. También es una obra con valor literario en sí mismo: Jack Chuter escribe de manera hipnótica, casi una traslación sinestésica de la música al papel. Y sabe muchísimo de lo que habla, con un lenguaje musical que muestra dominio sobre el tema. Da la sensación de que podría encontrar una métafora o una descripción de la estructura arquitectónica de Camela y darte ganas de oírlos. El libro tiene tanta pasión que a veces un simplemente tiene que parar para hacerse la imagen.
Teniendo en cuenta su valor histórico y literario, me parece absolutamente imprescindible para los fans del post-rock. Pero estoy seguro de que los melómanos, en general, también disfrutarán muchísimo de él. Es el mismo paisaje en el que perderse que ofrece el género musical.
Pero más allá de ese título acertadísimo y de una portada que podría serlo también de algún disco de Envy o de Explosions in the Sky, este Storm Static Sleep de Jack Chuter es lo más parecido que uno puede encontrar a un tratado sobre el género. Una Biblia exhaustiva, un máster sobre el post-rock, con esa misma naturaleza transitoria y limítrofe que tiene el estilo.
El trabajo informativo que hay aquí es colosal. Partiendo del crítico musical Simon Reynolds, que pudo ser el primero en acuñar la expresión para referirse a “utilizar instrumentación del rock para un propósito ajeno al rock” traza una trayectoria que abarca desde finales de los 80 hasta el estado actual del género. Desde una concepción más académica del término en la que cabrían todo tipo de grupos experimentales hasta el estilo actual de canciones largas e instrumentales, de olas avasalladoras que se tragan a los propios grupos.
Dos islas al principio, una que viene desde los nuevos románticos (Talk Talk) y otra desde el punk y el hardcore (Slint) que acaban estampándose en medio del océano y tras su muerte generan un nuevo continente. En un principio una forma de jugar con la música y de liberarse del machismo del rock, de la pose y la exageración. De jugar con los silencios y la propia arquitectura del sonido. Tras ellos llegarán Disco Inferno (a los que ya no puedo parar de oír en todos sitios, desde el post-rock actual hasta cosas como MGMT o casi toda la obra de Conor Oberst), Pram, Bark Psychosis, Trans Am, Rachel’s… Grupos que en el Reino Unido y Estados Unidos se ubicaban a medias de una transformación, en el viaje perpetuo para abandonar las cadenas que les había puesto el rock.
Se hace interesantísimo leer estos primeros capítulos, mitad entrevistas con varios productores (Steve Albini) y propietarios de discográficas independientes (Vinita Joshi, casi madre de unos adolescentes Disco Inferno) y mitad tratado histórico. Consigue ubicarte en una época, los inicios de los 90, en la que cuatro pelagatos empezaban a romper los límites conocidos de su género musical, casi zánganos obligados por la música. Esa primera parte, más post que rock, deja también una tonelada de discos recomendados.
A partir de ahí llegarán un puñado de grupos (Tortoise, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Mogwai, Do Make Say Think…) que estrecharán aún más esos límites y acabarán sentando las bases del género. De tanto estrechar habrá una vuelta hacia algo más rock que post, pero que sigue en un estado intermedio, una música que se sigue buscando. Más instrumental, de desarrollos más largos, pero menos experimental que en su concepción.
Podría seguir con una lista de grupos, pero tampoco tiene mucho sentido destripar todo lo que hay aquí. Sí que al leerlo uno ve que están todos los grandes del estilo y alguna que otra apuesta personal del autor, además de dedicarle un capítulo entero al post-metal donde aparecen los necesarios Neurosis e Isis. Y al acabar una reflexión: realmente da igual tratar de definir un género que se hace difícil de atrapar. Lo importante es no perderse en elitismos y abrazarse a él como un mapa con el que recorrer el mundo musical.
Storm Static Sleep puede verse como varias cosas. Para empezar es un cofre del tesoro, un arcón donde uno puede encontrar discos y discos para varias vidas; recomendaciones con las que nunca volver a pasar frío. También es una obra con valor literario en sí mismo: Jack Chuter escribe de manera hipnótica, casi una traslación sinestésica de la música al papel. Y sabe muchísimo de lo que habla, con un lenguaje musical que muestra dominio sobre el tema. Da la sensación de que podría encontrar una métafora o una descripción de la estructura arquitectónica de Camela y darte ganas de oírlos. El libro tiene tanta pasión que a veces un simplemente tiene que parar para hacerse la imagen.
Teniendo en cuenta su valor histórico y literario, me parece absolutamente imprescindible para los fans del post-rock. Pero estoy seguro de que los melómanos, en general, también disfrutarán muchísimo de él. Es el mismo paisaje en el que perderse que ofrece el género musical.
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May 14, 2016Probably the best book about post-rock you can get?
Pathways through post-rock is a book with some obvious strengths and weaknesses.
Jack Chuter is a very good writer about music. He made me want to listen to albums again, carefully. He brings up some things I've never thought about before, like the emotional ambiguity in some slint songs. (Eg. is Breadcrumb Trail a happy or sad song? The story seems upbeat enough, but the music undercuts it. Are the vertiginous, aggressive parts of the music just reflecting the rollercoaster, or is there a deeper unease there?) The book made me appreciate what good music journalism can do, inspiring you to listen more carefully, and helping you hear new things in the music.
Where the book is weaker is on how the music links to the world more generally. With a few exceptions (eg. Godspeed, Trans Am) it seems to exist largely in a vacuum. There's not even the trouble with record labels that usually bedevils this kind of story - even the larger labels come out fairly well (perhaps because post-rock never had the commercial appeal for bands to ruin?). Dave Pajo says he wanted his music to be "anti-guitar, anti-chops, anti-solos". What was it that led to this reaction? Was it just wanting to hear and to try something different, or can you see post-rock bands like Slint or Rodan as breaking out from an aggressive, masculine hardcore world?
This also leaves blind spots. The most glaring for me is the relationship between post-rock and women. Of the 141 members of the key bands the book talks about, 9 are women (of whom godspeed accounts for 4). That's a lower proportion than women on the boards of FTSE100 companies. My impression has always been that post-rock fans are more disproportionately male than for many other genres. What is it about post-rock that makes it so male-dominated?
So in summary: great on the music itself, and will enrich your listening, but does make the genre seem rather insular and unconnected to the world.
Pathways through post-rock is a book with some obvious strengths and weaknesses.
Jack Chuter is a very good writer about music. He made me want to listen to albums again, carefully. He brings up some things I've never thought about before, like the emotional ambiguity in some slint songs. (Eg. is Breadcrumb Trail a happy or sad song? The story seems upbeat enough, but the music undercuts it. Are the vertiginous, aggressive parts of the music just reflecting the rollercoaster, or is there a deeper unease there?) The book made me appreciate what good music journalism can do, inspiring you to listen more carefully, and helping you hear new things in the music.
Where the book is weaker is on how the music links to the world more generally. With a few exceptions (eg. Godspeed, Trans Am) it seems to exist largely in a vacuum. There's not even the trouble with record labels that usually bedevils this kind of story - even the larger labels come out fairly well (perhaps because post-rock never had the commercial appeal for bands to ruin?). Dave Pajo says he wanted his music to be "anti-guitar, anti-chops, anti-solos". What was it that led to this reaction? Was it just wanting to hear and to try something different, or can you see post-rock bands like Slint or Rodan as breaking out from an aggressive, masculine hardcore world?
This also leaves blind spots. The most glaring for me is the relationship between post-rock and women. Of the 141 members of the key bands the book talks about, 9 are women (of whom godspeed accounts for 4). That's a lower proportion than women on the boards of FTSE100 companies. My impression has always been that post-rock fans are more disproportionately male than for many other genres. What is it about post-rock that makes it so male-dominated?
So in summary: great on the music itself, and will enrich your listening, but does make the genre seem rather insular and unconnected to the world.
July 23, 2016
A pretty definitive look at a specific pathway through the ever-evolving and thus largely indefinable world of post-rock. The author's passion for the music is tangible, so much so that he rarely has a bad thing to say about the groups in question or the culture that surrounds them (and why should he?)
He writes from a clearly musical background, at an intelligent but easily comprehensible level that non-players can also appreciate; he frequently gushes about particular structural, melodic and rhythmic intricacies and idiosyncrasies that make the albums and tracks (even particular riffs or song sections) so great. It's this attention to the smallest details that makes his view of the bigger picture so reliable and involving, and it's a joy to read such informed and enthusiastic words on the music I share a passion for.
One thing that he touches on infrequently is the backlash that the genre (or at least the term 'post-rock' itself) inspires. As someone who plays in an instrumental band who use the term as little more than a lazy buzzword to give a general starting impression, I would have liked to hear a bit more from the detractors - particularly those who are generally believed to play in the style but refuse to adopt the term. But understandably, the author could only use the tools he was given, and his passion carried him the rest of the way.
A great read overall, and one I would recommend to any fans of the expansive musical palette, as the exploration of its full reach is more than adequately covered.
He writes from a clearly musical background, at an intelligent but easily comprehensible level that non-players can also appreciate; he frequently gushes about particular structural, melodic and rhythmic intricacies and idiosyncrasies that make the albums and tracks (even particular riffs or song sections) so great. It's this attention to the smallest details that makes his view of the bigger picture so reliable and involving, and it's a joy to read such informed and enthusiastic words on the music I share a passion for.
One thing that he touches on infrequently is the backlash that the genre (or at least the term 'post-rock' itself) inspires. As someone who plays in an instrumental band who use the term as little more than a lazy buzzword to give a general starting impression, I would have liked to hear a bit more from the detractors - particularly those who are generally believed to play in the style but refuse to adopt the term. But understandably, the author could only use the tools he was given, and his passion carried him the rest of the way.
A great read overall, and one I would recommend to any fans of the expansive musical palette, as the exploration of its full reach is more than adequately covered.
August 16, 2020
Works as an expansion of Jeanette Leech's book on Post Rock, Fearless, though this book came out first. Where Leech's book more or less ends with Explosions in the Sky's emergence, this one is more concerned with addressing what came after this. Leech's book can be detailed to an almost absurd degree (there's about 50 pages before even AR Kane is mentioned, another 25+ until Talk Talk, etc.), while this is more about giving a mini-bio to various major players in the genre. How much you enjoy either book likely depends on which era one finds more interesting. I mostly found the way Leech connected all the various strains of Post Rock to be way more interesting while I didn't really find Chuter's descriptions of these bands any more compelling on page than they are on record, even as he's clearly excited about them. I think this is mostly just down to the idea that as the genre stopped evolving, it also becomes less interesting to read about.
June 1, 2020
From interview with Godspeed You! Black Emperor:
"How would you describe your music?" Visser asked at one point. "That's not our role," the band replied. "That's what music journalists are supposed to do."
From interview with Cult of Luna:
"Since music 'journalists' do not seek the truth but just repeat what you say, I wondered how much I could lie and get away with. And it turned out that I could get away with a whole lot."
I read this because I am a fan of Slint, Tortoise, and Godspeed You! Black Emperor. I discovered other bands worthy of my time: Rachel's, Labradford, Trans Am, Mono, and Pelican. After all, Jack Chuter is a fanboy of post-rock music and his writing reflects the sincerity and obsession of his ardor. He owns all the albums, been to all the shows, talked to every musician and producer in the field who agreed to share their experiences and knowledge. This book is a labor of love. Got a band you enjoy in this genre? He has several recommendations to go with them. The book is niche. If you are not familiar with "post-rock," it will not help much. It's written by a fan for fans.
"Post-rock music" is a term coined by music journalist Simon Reynolds to describe, basically, what members of Tides From Nebula regurgitate back to Chuter during an interview, "...rock instrumentation playing non-rock songs." The term is nebulous and it's amusing the number of bands Chuter tracks down who, unlike Tides From Nebula, haven't the foggiest clue why they are included in the genre. Chuter admits as much: He states numerous times there is no clear rubric to quantify who belongs and who does not.
The narrative design of the book is counter-productive to the task at hand. Chuter's nebulous narrative winds through arbitrarily themed albums, providing an overview of impact and a description of technical innovations indicating how these albums conform or stretch his conception of post-rock. This format grows tedious quickly and the chapter titles do not include all the bands which may be discussed at length within them. This book would have worked much better as an album-guide organized by bands with short essays (where necessary) to tie disparate elements together. Hell, maybe even band geneologies, showing the evolution of Talk Talk as well as Slint.
And, I realize, that would likely have been an approach--the approach of album guides by Rolling Stone or Spin--too rooted in traditional rock. He prefers, I guess, to mimic the ethereal quality of his favorite bands, gliding along a tributary of distortion, brushed percussion prose, and electronic warbling, allowing bands to materialize in the mix and then, just as quietly, fade away.
"How would you describe your music?" Visser asked at one point. "That's not our role," the band replied. "That's what music journalists are supposed to do."
From interview with Cult of Luna:
"Since music 'journalists' do not seek the truth but just repeat what you say, I wondered how much I could lie and get away with. And it turned out that I could get away with a whole lot."
I read this because I am a fan of Slint, Tortoise, and Godspeed You! Black Emperor. I discovered other bands worthy of my time: Rachel's, Labradford, Trans Am, Mono, and Pelican. After all, Jack Chuter is a fanboy of post-rock music and his writing reflects the sincerity and obsession of his ardor. He owns all the albums, been to all the shows, talked to every musician and producer in the field who agreed to share their experiences and knowledge. This book is a labor of love. Got a band you enjoy in this genre? He has several recommendations to go with them. The book is niche. If you are not familiar with "post-rock," it will not help much. It's written by a fan for fans.
"Post-rock music" is a term coined by music journalist Simon Reynolds to describe, basically, what members of Tides From Nebula regurgitate back to Chuter during an interview, "...rock instrumentation playing non-rock songs." The term is nebulous and it's amusing the number of bands Chuter tracks down who, unlike Tides From Nebula, haven't the foggiest clue why they are included in the genre. Chuter admits as much: He states numerous times there is no clear rubric to quantify who belongs and who does not.
The narrative design of the book is counter-productive to the task at hand. Chuter's nebulous narrative winds through arbitrarily themed albums, providing an overview of impact and a description of technical innovations indicating how these albums conform or stretch his conception of post-rock. This format grows tedious quickly and the chapter titles do not include all the bands which may be discussed at length within them. This book would have worked much better as an album-guide organized by bands with short essays (where necessary) to tie disparate elements together. Hell, maybe even band geneologies, showing the evolution of Talk Talk as well as Slint.
And, I realize, that would likely have been an approach--the approach of album guides by Rolling Stone or Spin--too rooted in traditional rock. He prefers, I guess, to mimic the ethereal quality of his favorite bands, gliding along a tributary of distortion, brushed percussion prose, and electronic warbling, allowing bands to materialize in the mix and then, just as quietly, fade away.
July 27, 2019
Covers a LOT of ground, so frustratingly light on detail in parts. But otherwise, a good overview of the genre
December 31, 2015
I waited for a book on post-rock for ages. As a first shot this one is ok - covers basic Bark Psychosis, Talk Talk, Slint and Tortoise foundation. The research was fine and the writing ok, but skimps on analysis as the book progresses inevitably skipping from band to band toward the end. Not my favorite read on music, but a solid introduction.
September 26, 2016
A noble effort, but there just isn't that much to say about the subject.
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