Texas’s foremost post-rock instrumentalists typify the rich musical tapestry hailing from the southern state, taking more than one leaf from Josh T Pearson’s Lift To Experience and …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead – adopting the former’s approach to lavish storytelling and the latter’s sonic bombast.
Opener The Birth & Death Of The Day defines Explosions’ layered approach: repetitive guitar noodling has first shimmering cymbals, then a deeper riff lovingly laid down on its bed, a whispering kiss placed on its forehead for good measure. In their previous offerings (most notably 2001’s Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Live Forever) the descending assault that followed was just as brutal as its ascent was beautiful. As demonstrated here, while Explosions’ penchant for tugging bruisingly at the heart-strings is still underlying, theirs is now a more mature, angled and deliberate tweak. See What Do You Go Home To?, for example: a five-minute piano-led romance.
Catastrophe & The Cure unites Explosions past and present, nurturing ethereal guitar waves that crash out of time against a coast of drums and bass. It’s the album’s standout track and it alone breathes life back into a tiring genre. God bless Texas.
