Fresh Picks: Heron.
Heron – Warren, Pennsylvania, USA.
Post-Rock is a genre of music that has exponentially grown in popularity in recent years. It’s a genre that can transport you to a distant and exotic locale, a place rife with beautiful imagery and truly relaxing mental panoramas.
It’s a genre that can accompany you in reality when you’re ambling up a mountainside path with a good book looking to escape or even amongst your journey through the fantasy worlds of Thedas, Tamriel or Post-Apocalyptic Boston.
And if either of those examples either don’t relate or haven’t crossed your path yet then you’re likely to also find the genre amongst the epics of the big screen. Now, this is all well and good and a positive for the most part but in somewhat of a negative tone this has put a hidden pressure on the genre to break from these confines and to expand or hone its sonic artistry.
But the real question is, even if the genre matches these instances, should it just be taken as such? The answer is no. Post-Rock is something so very versatile, yet it does not seem so. My point in uttering these words is that with Heron, they tick all the boxes of Post-Rock and its cliches, standards and applicabilities but also stand on their own eight feet.
The dark, ominous notes of ‘Ender’ break away from the cheerful and beautiful direction of ‘Shores’ showing Heron to have the Post-Rock equivalent of a Punk song gone Hardcore. This instrumental angst culminates and explodes from its confines from 6:10 to the songs end in a fashion that produced nothing but adoration from this reviewer.
Heron’s heavier tendencies are something that make their debut record standout wholly rather than just for that reason.
You Are Here Now for me is titled perfectly in relation the compositions it resides over. Heron have in tradition of the genre, transported you without your consent to pictures and stills painted from your very wants and quite possibly needs.
Musically they carry the long drawn out build-ups but unlike many do not waste too much time “getting to the point” before it all simply slips into tedium. The band opt for songs comparatively small in length for a genre so known for epics spanning thirty minutes.
Heron are in many ways very new to this game, they are band that although not breaking any hugely “new” ground have constructed a sound that despite being heard on one release, is far stronger tan you’d expect. The band’s variation of Post-Rock takes the genre traditions holds them as a staple while they flirtatiously explore a sound with darker tones and considerably more weight than you’d expect from their first expression.
Heron are a band that I will shut up about now or I fear I will write volumes on. So with that said, find them below:
- Social media: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Official Website.
- Music: iTunes, Spotify, bandcamp.
#StayFresh.
