Canadian Post-Rock

One of the most diverse and least known genres on the scene is post-rock: an extreme minimalist approach to modern progressive rock, using alternative musical methods to create unique sounds. Post-rock encorporates elements of many different genres, as far spread as classical, country and metal. Its origins are found in alternative music, most notably in drone bands such as The Velvet Underground, and in krautrock especially. Bands such as shoegaze pioneers My Bloody Valentine, Public Image Ltd, Slint and Talk Talk have all been identified as the originators of the post-rock movement and are considered influential by most bands associated with it.

Oddly enough, some of the greatest post-rock bands known to listeners come from right here in Canada. Montreal has the most diverse post-rock scene in music, with such bands as Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Do Make Say Think, A Silver Mt. Zion and Fly Pan Am, all calling the Paris of Canada home. Each of these bands appear on the Constellation, an influential indie record label that has been noteably anti-establishment for quite some time (on the of GSYBE!'s newest albums, for example, the record lable created a chart linking AOL, Vivendi and Sony-BMG to arms dealers worldwide, thus increasing war with every purchase).

GSYBE! especially has been a founding contributor to the scene in Montreal. The band began with Efrim Menuck, Mauro Pezzente and Mike Moya in 1994 but grew to as many as 20 members as the band began recording, many of whom played live shows and never played again. While the band contains a mostly formulaic rock foundation (guitar, drums, bass), their music is rich with diversity (glockenspiel, French horn, trumpets, a full orchestral string and percussion section, etc). Members of the band are highly anti-political, despise corporate media and rarely give interviews. Members and former members have contributed to albums by A Silver Mt. Zion, Hrsta and Set Fire to Flames; in this sense, they are all considered side projects of GSYBE!.

On the world stage, post-rock has exploded. Bands such as Scotland's Mogwai, Iceland's Sigur Ros, Texas' Explosions in the Sky and Chicago-born Tortoise have all developed post-rock internationally. Sigur Ros especially has put Iceland on the map musically (along with Bjork, of course), developing elaborate soundscapes and enlightening melodies. Conclusively, when it comes to post-rock, you can't get enough minimalism.