MUSIC

The Fleece, Bristol (Wed 19 Oct)

So, what exactly is post rock when it's at home? Unmistakably, it's a genre – unlike, say, grunge or grime – which operates with no fixed address. In the last decade, countless instrumental rock bands have popped up all over the world – from Leicester (Maybeshewill) to Tokyo (Lite) – yet, sonically, many are nigh-on impossible to pin down, such are their restless movements and questing experimentations.

Lite (who are anything but) are a case in point. Though they hail from Japan – and share a smidge in common with their post-rock kinsmen (Toe, Te, Mono etc) – their sound, especially material from their latest LP 'For all the Innocence', is difficult to frame. One minute they transport us to a nameless tropical idyll, where the sun is constantly setting, as on 'Pirates and Parakeets'. The next, they reboot the whole shebang, and strive to approximate an 8-bit meltdown, as on 'Chameleon Eyes', on which gnashing riffs gobble up blooping Pac-Man pixels. Elsewhere, they grapple with disco. All guided with the cinematic hand of a surrealist director. Like Battles, but way, way more deranged.

Smash cut, and they're thrashing out 'Human Gift' from their debut 'Filmlets'. It's a brawl of scalpel-sharp riffs and fracturing drum patterns. Ripped bass lines scrap their way out of tight corners. It's ferociously gobsmacking. If nothing else, Lite foxily reconcile two of history's most embattled rivals – prog rock and punk. An insane feat.

Prior to Lite, This is My Normal State and The Naturals are very much stuck in the post-rock mud, so to speak. Both conjure dense walls of sound adequately enough. But there's no great substance behind their squalling elements. Admittedly, on TIMNS's closer, 'Angel Falls,' singer Yuka Kurihara's ice-pick scream is pleasingly reminiscent of Bjork's, and sounds like it's coming from atop a mountain.

Headliners Maybeshewill's (pictured) take on the genre is akin to 65 Days of Static's glitchy hardcore. Air hangar-sized riffs are underlaid with shimmering synths and cyclical piano motifs. Their metallic throb is cut with the precise amount of pop catchiness to keep emokids fisting the air. But it's all hands-to-the-sky epicness by numbers, and soon becomes clock-watchingly predictable. Single 'Critical Distance' is a mishmash of riffing and happy-clappy house highs, while closer 'Not For Want of Trying' builds portentously with Network's legendary “you've got to get mad” tirade bawling over the top. Yet even this inspired piece of intertextuality isn't enough to top Lite's frenzied, eye-popping performance. (Jamie Skey)

Copyright Jamie Skey 2011