The Wilderness
Soundtracking “rousing sport montages” was not an ambition for Texan instrumental rockers Explosions In the Sky with their sixth album. We’re not sure they’ll avoid that honor entirely—“The Ecstatics” and “Tangle Formations” are spine-tingly enough to accompany most last-second heroics—but this panoramic, foreboding set certainly hits harder than previous work. “Disintegration Anxiety” is a fuzzy, muscular work-out, the ambient and glitchy “Losing the Light” haltingly unsettling, while “Colours in Space” cycles through the band’s full range of melodic shades before allowing “Landing Clifs” its gorgeous comedown.
The Wilderness is Explosions In The Sky's sixth album, and first non-soundtrack release since 2011’s Take Care, Take Care, Take Care. True to its title, The Wilderness explores the infinite unknown, utilizing several of the band’s own definitions of “space" (outer space, mental space, physical geography of space) as compositional tools. The band uses their gift for dynamics and texture in new and unique ways—rather than intuitively fill those empty spaces, they shine a light into them to illuminate all the colors of the dark. From the electronic textures of the opening track to the ambient dissolve of closer “Landing Cliffs,” The Wilderness is an aggressively modern and forward-thinking work—one that wouldn’t seem the slightest bit out of place on a shelf between original pressings of Meddle and Obscured By Clouds. It is an album where shoegaze, electronic experimentation, punk damaged dub, noise, and ambient folk somehow coexist without a hint of contrivance—and cohere into some of the most memorable and listenable moments of the band’s expansive body of work—“proper” studio albums and major motion picture soundtracks alike. The progressive ambience of early Peter Gabriel, the triumphant romanticism of The Cure in their prime, and the more melancholy moments of Fleetwood Mac all inform the curious beauty of The Wilderness. The uncanny ability to reconcile the tension between discordant, nightmarish cacophony and laid-back, Laurel Canyon-inspired folk-rock is a cornerstone of this album, and the center of Explosions In The Sky's remarkable evolution. If The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place was the defining album of Explosions In The Sky's career, The Wilderness is the band's [re]defining album.
Explosions in the Sky's sixth album, their best since 2003's The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place, is a quietly masterful, emotionally rich work.
Over the course of six albums, Austin post-rock pioneers Explosions In The Sky has developed and mastered a style that puts the band in a perilous position in 2016. The members know what works, with their Friday Night Lights film soundtrack shining a light on the cinematic capabilities of their instrumentals. Huge…
The Texas post rock pyro engineers have finally found their next phase with a new album that is thrillingly foreign yet familiar in its finest moments.
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Texan post-rock quartet Explosions in the Sky's sixth (non-soundtrack) album is a beautiful record; you just wish the vocabulary existed to do it justice.
Over the past decade, Explosions in the Sky have consistently crafted music resembling an Americanized, "get to the point" version of Godspe...
It has been five years since the release of Take Care, Take Care, Take Care, Explosions in the Sky's last non-soundtrack album. (Working on the films Prince Avalanche, Lone Survivor, and Manglehorn kept the group plenty busy in the interim.)
Texan four-piece Explosions in the Sky have developed an international cult following as their post-rock instrumentals have appeared everywhere from film soundtracks to TV trailers.
You could be forgiven for wondering if the Texas post-rock outfit Explosions in the Sky was ever going to release another album proper.
Explosions in the Sky - The Wilderness review: A thrilling and bold expedition out of the ordinary and into the unknown.