Two weeks ago a new song by the post-rock band We Lost The Sea was released. I planned to include it in my weekly A Penny for Your Songs post, but I decided against it. It deserves its own space. I'm sure once you've seen the video, you'll agree with me.
Awesome.
I've been a quasi-fan of post-rock ever since I first came in contact with groups such as Mogwai, Maybeshewill, God is an Astronaut. There has been a time when these bands, along with their heavier counterparts (Neurosis, Isis, Pelican, which I also love) were very popular, but alas the post sound can get old pretty fast, and lately it seems to me like we've all grown out of that phase a bit.
That doesn't mean post-rock is dead. Its influence has been huge on a number of other genres and acts, and the good stuff that still get released retain its strong suits: the ability of effectively like a soundtrack of sorts to our own life. The capacity to help us give freedom to our deepest thoughts, fears, emotions, without the burden of lyrics to "box" them into a specific category.
The new single by We Lost The Sea is awesome because it's exactly what it's supposed to be. A powerful instrumental climax (that reminds me of Isis a lot) that projects us into a stunned state for 8 minutes straight.
Terrifying.
I believe most people realize the dire state our society and our environment is currently in. Especially over the last month, what with fires covering pretty much every continent on earth, we've read some very depressing predictions about our future as a species. The word extinction doesn't sound that far-fetched anymore. At the same time we are assisting to the rise of some very dangerous, very hateful and very irrational ideologies all over the civilized world. If you live on this planet and you've got a little bit of sensitivity to your surroundings, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.
Yet, this descent into darkness has been going on for some time. We are apparently powerless to stop it, to some extent powerless to slow it, even. Our lives go on regardless. We get used to the idea that something wrong, we cancel it out with our own issues, our own matters. We live in a drunken stupor, made up by our things, our devices.
And still, that feeling of powerlessness is there, in our minds. That existential awareness that something is wrong is like a background noise to our daily routine. We can't let ourselves panic, but we can't really ignore the problem completely. Maybe we wish we could. But with every newspaper article, every alarmed shout, every bit of bad news our attention is turned to the world around us a little more. And that noise becomes deafening. That powerlessness becomes stunning.
That's what I feel when I watch this video. Small. Powerless. Panicked. And I've been watching it a lot. A Beautiful Collapse is about the destruction of all we know, and how morbidly beautiful it must look when watched from afar.
Sit back. Go full-screen. Awe. And terror.
Let me know your thoughts about it. And please, do yourself a favor and read the description of the video, written by the band. Their words are way more effective than mine.
