Ecstatic Ephemera: Post-silence and the Art of Patience
Instrumentals, interludes, and moments of purposeful grace.
I absolutely love making playlists. I make them for myself, for other people, for this newsletter, and for my own posterity as a “music journalist.” If I was self-absorbed enough to sanctify my own individuality, I would say something to the effect of “Making playlists is just, you know, my thing.” Because, well, it totally is. (Take that playful and quirky self-deprecation.)
Most days, I’m working on several different things at once. Essays, reviews, journal submissions, newsletter posts, book proposals, fiction research, day-job drudgery, general YouTube-fuelled procrastination—typically all at the same time. And to quell the raging tempest that is my fractured brain, I listen to “chill” music. For my own tastes, this usually takes the form of ten-minute-plus post-rock tunes, riffy stoner rock jams, bursts of post-hardcore, and the occasional slice of post-silence, instrumental interludes.
Selecting tracks that patiently ebb and flow over a few hours, moving in and out of my conscious awareness, helps me to slow things down and collect my thoughts. So, here’s a playlist I curated—just for you—that does exactly that.
sleepmakeswaves – “now we rise and we are everywhere”
An early cut from Australian post-rock luminaries sleepmakeswaves, “now we rise and we are everywhere” makes me think of unearthly creatures soaring across the thermals of a far and distant alien plain. Why? I don’t know. That’s just where my mind goes when it wanders.
ISIS – “In Fiction”
Maybeshewill – “In Amber”
This is probably one of my favourite post-rock tracks ever. It’s fun and bright and compelling and piano-driven, but still brooding and pensive in that ‘six-dudes-with-beards-just-totally-jamming-out-with-their-feelings’ kind of way. It also skates right under the six-minute mark, which is nice. Brevity goes a long way towards fostering continual distraction, folks.
Alcest – “Kodama”
Elder – “Sanctuary”
While this is easily the most conventional ‘rock’ song listed here, it’s also a sprawling epic that deserves a prime position at the end of the first leg. The track is broken into three, distinct sections—much like this list—allowing for catchy call-and-response vocal chants, jam-band guitar freakouts, and some good ol’ fashioned headbang riffery.
Mogwai – “The Sun Smells Too Loud”
Explosions In The Sky – “Catastrophe and the Cure”
One of my favourite cuts from the gods of post-rock, “Catastrophe and the Cure” is Explosions In The Sky at their most labyrinthian and cinematic. There’s a polite, haunting quality to the instrumentation here that sits right on the edge of your awareness: the soft pitter-patter of delicate percussion, shimmering guitar leads and swirling atmospherics, drastic loud-soft dynamics and cascading crescendos. In the lexicon of philosophical wank, this is music-as-being and I adore every second of it.
Misery Signals – “Worlds & Dreams”
John Carpenter – “Vortex”
No one sets a mood better than John Carpenter. With over fifty years in the game and a slew of critically acclaimed creative works under his belt, he’s already justified in taking on the moniker of The Master of Horror. However, “Vortex” is Carpenter at his most subdued. It’s an entirely patient number, yet still unnerving and apprehensive in a way that only he could pull off. It’s my sonic curveball for this list because staying on your toes means you can run away at any time—if you want to.
Cult Of Luna – “Dim”
Gifts From Enola – “Steady Diet”
Man, this band should have been huge. This track in particular is astoundingly powerful, but A Healthy Fear (2012) as a whole contains some of the most interesting post-everything music that I’ve ever heard. I’m pretty sure Gifts From Enola are singing about homelessness here, and rationalising one’s own position and privilege within the world of new millennium late-capitalism, but once that cavernous bridge section hits and you fall right into a chasm of double-time carnage, things have moved beyond an intellectual exercise into a full-blown limbic system shutdown. Bravo.
Pallbearer – “The Ghost I Used To Be”
Rosetta – “(Untitled II)”
I have this distinct memory of flying over the ice-capped mountain ranges of Alaska and Western Canada half a decade ago, of being half-asleep and mildly delirious, gazing out a port-side aeroplane window while listening to Rosetta’s Quintessential Ephemera (2015). I’m not sure why this particular recall event keeps popping up when I listen to “Untitled (II)” specifically, but it does make me feel things and I like feeling things, okay?
Numenorean – “Adore”
We Lost The Sea – “With Grace”
Ending on a suitably dour note, this track always puts me in a deeply existential mood. We Lost The Sea’s The Quietest Place on Earth (2012) essentially functions as a suicide note for vocalist Chris Torpy, who tragically took his life in 2013 months after the album’s release. Necessary context which, given the subject matter, makes the sixteen-minute opus “With Grace” hit all that much harder.
“For the giving to the soil/
We worship the land/
And this lucid way of rest is how I want to remain.
Converging through the void/
Finally passing on/
Contently, with grace.”
Stream the full playlist on Spotify below: