Explosions In The Sky

Explosions In The Sky probably don't need much of an introduction, as they are easily one of the biggest bands I've ever posted on here. As a quick overview, they are a four-piece post-rock band from Austin, Texas that began in 1999. They've become one of the most influential and emulated bands of their kind. The layered, melodic guitars soaked in reverb and delay have cropped up in a multitude of other genres and popularized a lot of soundtracks (some of which EITS contributed to directly). They're as epic and anthemic as their namesake suggests, making every moment monumentous. Thus, I figured they were the best closer for this year, which we can all at least pretend ended on a high note. Enjoy.

How Strange, Innocence (2000)

1. A Song For Our Fathers

2. Snow And Lights

3. Magic Hours

4. Look Into The Air

5. Glittering Blackness

6. Time Stops

7. Remember Me As A Time Of Day 

Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Live Forever (2001)

1. Greet Death

2. Yasmin The Light

3. The Moon is Down

4. Have You Passed Through This Night?

5. A Poor Man's Memory

6. With Tired Eyes, Tired Minds, Tired Souls, We Slept

The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place (2003)

1. First Breath After Coma

2. The Only Moment We Were Alone

3. Six Days At The Bottom Of The Ocean

4. Memorial

5. Your Hand In Mine

Thank You (2004)

6. The Long Summer

Note: Temporary Residence Limited compilation to celebrate its 50th release

The Rescue (2005)

1. Day One

2. Day Two

3. Day Three

4. Day Four

5. Day Five

6. Day Six

7. Day Seven

8. Day Eight

All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone (2007)

1. The Birth And Death Of The Day

2. Welcome, Ghosts

3. It's Natural To Be Afraid

4. What Do You Go Home To?

5. Catastrophe and The Cure

6. So Long, Lonesome

Note: Bonus disc of remixes available here

Take Care, Take Care, Take Care (2011)

1. Last Known Surroundings

2. Human Qualities

3. Trembling Hands

4. Be Comfortable, Creature

5. Postcard from 1952

6. Let Me Back In

The Wilderness (2016)

1. Wilderness

2. The Ectastics

3. Tangle Formations

4. Logic Of A Dream

5. Disintegration Anxiety

6. Losing The Light

7. Infinite Orbit

8. Colors in Space

9. Landing Cliffs

SOUNDTRACKS

Friday Night Lights (2004)

1. From West Texas

2. Your Hand In Mine (w/strings)

3. Our Last Days As Children

4. An Ugly Fact Of Life

5. Home

6. Daniel Lanois - Sonho Dourado

7. To West Texas

8. Your Hand In Mine (Goodbye)

9. Inside It All Feels The Same

10. David Torn - Do You Ever Feel Cursed

11. Lonely Train

12. Bad Company - Seagull

13. The Sky Above, The Field Below

14. A Slow Dance

Note: Score by EITS except where noted

Prince Avalanche (2013)

1. Fires

2. Theme From Prince Avalanche

3. Dear Madison

4. Passing Time

5. Rain

6. Alone Time

7. Hello, Is This Your House?

8. Can't We Just Listen To Silence

9. Wading

10. Dear Alvin

11. The Lines on the Road That Lead You Back Home

12. An Old Peasant Like Me

13. Join Me on My Avalanche

14. The Adventures of Alvin and Lance

15. Send Off

Note: Score by Explosions In The Sky & David Wingo

Lone Survivor (2013)

1. Warriors

2. Waking Up

3. Briefing

4. Seal Credo / Landing

5. Checkpoints

6. Steve Jablonsky - The Goat Herders

7. The Decision

8. Set Them Free

9. False Summit

10. Murphy's Ridge

11. Steve Jablonsky - 47 Down

12. Axe

13. QRF En Route

14. Hunted

15. Gulab

16. Near Beheading

17. A Storm Is Coming

18. Steve Jablonsky - Letter Received / Taliban Attacks

19. Steve Jablonsky - Lone Survivor

20. Never, Never, Never Give Up

Note: Score by EITS except where noted by Steve Jablonsky

Mangelhorn (2015)

1. Manglehorn Lock and Key

2. Lightning and a Bottle

3. Did I Scare You?

4. Baseball Miracles

5. A Strange World

6. Peristalsis

7. The Lift

8. Paper Moons

9. Hello!

10. Kylie and the Lion

11. Beehive on a Mailbox

12. The Purge

13. Out to Sea

14. Can You Believe It?

Note: Score by Explosions In The Sky & David Wingo

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This Will Destroy You

This Will Destroy You are a post-rock band from San Marcos, Texas that formed in 2004. They self-recorded and self-released their debut EP Young Mountain in 2005 before giving it a proper release in 2006. Ten years later, the band is still celebrated as being one of the best post-rock acts to come out in recent years, and have established themselves as a name of their own. However, to return to Young Mountain, it's hard not to bring up this fantastic debut without making a very strong comparison to a certain other Texas post-rock band, Explosions In The Sky. The gentle guitar arpeggios, reverberated tremolo picking, and climatic build-ups are all staples of both band's sounds.

This Will Destroy You continued this guitar-driven atmospheric sound into their debut full-length, where they crafted even grander sonic landscapes that are as immersing as they are soaring. They expanded their palette to include more electronic tinkerings and longer, more ambient breaks in melody. Essentially they were setting themselves apart from the "Your Hand In Mine" comparisons of their still-gorgeous sound they established on Young Mountain.

2011 brought a large shift in tone for the band, with the release of their second full-length Tunnel Blanket. For one, it's a much darker record than their previous efforts, both in terms of sound and visual aesthetic. It's a little more comparable to a band like Russian Circles, though still very much set apart as its own entity. The band brings in elements of drone and doom metal, with a more despairing tone that eschews the cliche crescendo/climax format of their earlier material. Another Language furthers this, bringing in a noisier, heavier, and more chaotic sound to their now very diverse arsenal of sounds to experiment with. Like any great band in this realm of music, This Will Destroy You can perfectly balance violent storms with serene calms, and this juxtaposition makes for some very captivating and endearing music. I know this band has been highly requested, so I'm happy to finally have them up on here. Enjoy.

Young Mountain (2006)

1. Quiet

2. The World Is Our ___

3. I Believe In Your Victory

4. Grandfather Clock

5. Happiness: We're All In It Together

6. There Are Some Remedies Worse Than The Disease

This Will Destroy You (2008)

1. A Three-Legged Workhorse

2. Villa Del Refugio

3. Threads

4. Leather Wings

5. The Mighty Rio Grande

6. They Move On Tracks Of Never-Ending Light

7. Burial On The Presidio Banks

Field Studies (2009)

1. This Will Destroy You - Brutalism & The Worship Of The Machine

2. This Will Destroy You - Freedom Blade

3. Lymbyc Systym - Processed Spirits

4. Lymbyc Systym - Notations

5. Lymbyc Systym - Narita

Moving On The Edges Of Things (2010)

1. Rituals

2. Woven Tears

Communal Blood (2010)

1. Communal Blood

2. Reprise

Tunnel Blanket (2011)

1. Little Smoke

2. Glass Realms

3. Communal Blood

4. Reprise

5. Killed The Lord, Left For The New World

6. Osario

7. Black Dunes

8. Powdered Hands

Live In Reykjavik, Iceland (2013)

1. A Three Legged Workhorse (Live)

2. There Are Some Remedies Worse Than The Disease (Live)

3. Black Dunes (Live)

4. Burial On The Presidio Banks (Live)

5. Glass Realms (Live)

6. Communal Blood (Live)

7. Quiet (Live)

8. They Move On Tracks Of Never-Ending Light (Live)

9. Little Smoke (Live)

10. The Mighty Rio Grande (Live)

11. Threads (Live)

Another Language (2014)

1. New Topia

2. Dustism

3. Serpent Mound

4. War Prayer

5. The Puritan

6. Mother Opiate

7. Invitation

8. Memory Loss

9. God's Teeth

Doused In Mud, Soaked In Bleach (2016)
6. Paper Cuts (Nirvana cover)

Note: Full comp here

New Others Part One (2018)

1. Melted Jubilee

2. To Win, Somebody's Got To Lose

3. Syncage

4. Allegiance

5. Weeping Window

6. Like This

7. Go Away Closer

New Others Part Two (2018)

1. Sound of Your Death

2. Lie Down in the Light

3. Clubs

4. Jesse Ray

5. Cascade

6. New Promise Land Inc.

7. Provoke

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toe

toe are a four-piece math rock/post-rock/indie band from Japan that formed in 2000. They've spent many years touring and building a fanbase in Japan, and continue to garner a larger fanbase with a recent signing to Topshelf. toe is a group of incredible musicians, just check out some of their live material on Youtube or whatever, it's phenomenal. Getting into a description of their sound is quite hard to do, since it is rather complex and experimental, but also quite melodic. They craft some gorgeous songs, and blend it with their intricacies.  They're a mostly instrumental band, though they started to include vocals the farther they've come into their career. If you're a fan of math rock, or even just amazing musicianship, I would highly recommend giving toe a listen. Enjoy.

Pele/toe (2002)

1. Pele - Drop Attack

2. toe - Velvet Blanc

Songs, Ideas We Forgot (2002)

1. Leave Word

2. I Dance Alone

3. 1, 2, 3, 4

4. Path

5. Yoru Wa Akeru

Re:designed (2003)

1. I Dance Alone (Light On Light Remix) (Kaida Shogo Remix)

2. Yoru Wa Akeru _re:desgn.d (Dave Lebleu Remix)

3. Leave Word ("Cigarette Papers" Mix) (Pele Remix)

4. Path (Mito Remix)

5. Past And Language (Nano Machine Remix)

6. Velvet Blanc

7. Path And Language

The Book About My Idle Plot On A Vague Anxiety (2005)

1. Hangyaku Suru Fuukei

2. kodoku no hatsumei

3. Tremolo + Delay

4. Mukougishi Ga Shiru Yume

5. All I Understand Is That I Don't Understand

6. C

7. Past And Language

8. Music For You

9. I Do Still Wrong

10. Metronome

11. Everything Means Nothing

New Sentimentality (2006)

1. Tsunagaru Haruka Achira

2. 1/21

3. New Sentimentality

4. Goodbye

5. Velvet Blanc

toe/Collection of Colonies Of Bees (2009)

1. The Faber

4. 繋がる遥か彼方 (Happy Birthday Little Jodie Remix)

Note: toe side only

For Long Tomorrow (2009)

1. ここには何もかもがあるし、何もかもがない

2. ショウシツ点よ笛

3. After Image

4. エソテリック

5. Say It Ain't So

6. Two Moons

7. モスキートンはもう聞こえない #1

8. モスキートンはもう聞こえない #2

9. ラストナイト (Album Version)

10. グッドバイ (Album Version)

11. You Go

12. Our Next Movement

13. Long Tomorrow

The Future Is Now (2012)

1. Run For Word

2. Tsuki Kake feat. Aco

3. Ordinary Days

4. The Future Is Now

Hear You (2015)

1. Premonition (Beginning Of A Desert Of Human)

2. A Desert of Human

3. Commit Ballad

4. The World According To

5. My Little Wish

6. Song Silly

7. Boyo

8. Time Goes

9. オトトタイミングキミト

10. G.O.O.D L.U.C.K

11. Because I Hear You

Our Latest Number (2018)

1. Dual Harmonics

2. The Latest Number

3. Etude Of Solitude

4. F_A_R

Now I See The Light (2024)

1. 風と記憶

2. LONELINESS WILL SHINE

3. TODO Y NADA

4. 街のどこかで

5. WHO KNOWS ?

6. CLOSE TO YOU

7. キアロスクーロ

8. サニーボーイ・ラプソディ

9. MADNESS SUMMER

10. NOW I SEE THE LIGHT

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The Space Between Thoughts

Band submission. The Space Between Thoughts is the one-man project lead by Aidan Morley, who put out his debut album earlier this month (July). The entire thing was written (with the exception of a Joy Division cover) and recorded by him over a two-year period. The result: There It Is! I Can Almost See It!. This album is entirely instrumental (again, with the exception of the Joy Division cover), and certainly contains many post-rock leanings. The album is mostly guitar-based, featuring a nice blend of both electric and acoustic guitars, though there is occasionally some drums and bass (though the drums sound like they were done using a program). This album is nicely varied, and each song brings some new ideas to the table. Overall it's quite atmospheric and reverb-laden, though can still range from being ambient, to melodic, to dark, heavy, and ominous. This is certainly an interesting album that features some great and innovative guitar work, so check it out. Enjoy.

There It Is! I Can Almost See It! (2013)

1. The One Who Heals

2. You Know, Babe, There Isn't Much Else To Live For Besides Pomegranates

3. Her Eyes Were Half-Open. No. Half-Closed.

4. Okay, you know what, I'm so, well because I, but that's not, because she, ... Let's go to the Movies.

5. Disorder (Joy Division cover)

6. Birdo

7. 1-5-9

8. Stay Afraid