Articles
Hatchback
Dennis Wilson
Michna Top 10

Albums
Alpha Aesar
The Alps
Anduin
Beaten By Them
Bible & Henry
Bird Show
Bitcrush
The Boats
Boduf Songs
Budd & Wright
Callers
Derek Carr
Matthew Robert Cooper
Cristal
Dreamsploitation
Gore
Hatchback
Inverz
Monika Kruse
Lights Out Asia
Miya Masaoka
Michna
Model 500
Mr Cooper
Near The Parenthesis
Patron and Patron
Procer Veneficus
Raglani
Red Snapper
Max Richter
Roots Manuva
Michael Santos
Sempervirens
Shed
Sleepingdog
Spect. Lore / Underjordiska
Andy Stott
Taub
The Third Man
Uzi & Ari
You May Die / Gifts Enola
Zèbra
Zilverhill

Compilations / Mixes
DJ /Rupture
Diaspora: Cottage Ind. 5
Total 9

EPs
John R Carlson
Intrusion
Keenhouse
Joe Lapaglia
Model 500
Duncan Ó Ceallaigh
Frank Omura
Shigeto
The Sight Below
Steinbrüchel
Van Der Papen
Warez

You May Die in the Desert / Gifts from Enola: Harmonic Motion Volume 1
Differential

Post-rock lives…at least so long as bands like You May Die in the Desert and Gifts From Enola have anything to say about it. The outfits are given an ideal showcase to strut their stuff on Differential's first Harmonic Motion installment in what will presumably be a multi-chapter series.

Brian Woods' guitar breathes apocalyptic fire a number of times during “The Sound of Titans,” an episodic, twelve-minute travelogue that inaugurates You May Die in the Desert's set in fine style. Here and elsewhere, bassist Brandon Salter and drummer Michael Clark rise to the occasion when the need arises. Woods indulges in barracuda riffing in the succinct “In Case I Should Die…,” “Mitchell vs. Rowesdower” alternates atmospheric and aggressive passages, and “Seagulls = Sea Eagles” works a taste of loping funk into its sinewy frame (the doubled guitar and bass lines are an especially nice touch, and so too is the glockenspiel) before the immolating crush of “Let's Have Sarcasm for Breakfast” rolls in.

Though the two groups' sounds are almost uncannily alike, Gifts From Enola pushes the intensity level up a notch with its opening salvo “The Sun's Condolences.” The group's fuller sound (synthesizers are audible in “Still Walks the Streets,” at least when not buried under a six-string avalanche) could be attributed to some degree to it being a quartet, not trio. Gifts From Enola also stretches the stylistic palette a bit more compared to You May Die in the Desert by including an atmospheric interlude (“10/7”), shoegaze-inflected stratospherics (“The Vision of Ruby Turpin”), and a prog-inflected closer (“Dusk Swallowed Dawn”) whose acoustic guitar intro startles before being wiped out when the cyclone hits. All things considered, the collection isn't mind-blowingly innovative but it's a picturesque ride nonetheless and should leave famished post-rock fans sated.

October 2008