What is Instrumental Post-Rock?

Post-rock is a lesser-known genre of music that you’ve probably heard before without realizing it. In fact, post-rock music often can be heard in movies. It combines technical skill on the part of the musician with an emotional element that can be a bit more subtle and nuanced. But when curators, producers, and musicians reference post-rock, what do they mean? And are all flavors of “post-rock” the same?

What Is Post-Rock?

Music magazines use the term post-rock along with its cousins post-metal and post-hardcore pretty frequently, so if you’re an avid music fan, you’ve probably seen or heard this term before. Post-rock along with these other terms has become a kind of catch-all term for music that doesn’t fit into predefined genre categories. It’s a way for fans to label newer bands and help with discovery, but many fans don’t actually know the meaning of the term they are using.

The trouble with post-rock and other “post” genres is that the boundaries of these genres are hard to understand unless you are a trained musicologist. Even practicing musicians and dedicated music fans may have trouble defining what post-rock is beyond listing a few common effects and composition techniques. The answer to “what is post-rock instrumental” is a lot more complicated than it seems. Many listeners will define the genre by referencing their favorite band, "You know, like The Six Parts Seven!"

The Origin of Post-Rock

Most people trace the usage of post-rock back to the British music journalist and critic Simon Reynolds, who was the first person to define the term post-rock in print when reviewing the album “Hex” by the British Band “Bark Psychosis” for Mojo Magazine in 1994. He drew a distinction between regular rock and post-rock because post-rock uses traditional rock instruments in non-traditional ways—for example, by playing tones on electric guitars instead of riffs. June in Winter uses overlapping guitar riffs that play off of each other to create interesting melodic textures. The typical arrangement of rhythm & lead guitar gets blurred as the listener would have a hard time figuring out which one was which. Reynolds was not the first person to ever use the term post-rock. It had been floating around for a few years before his review, but he was the first person to put forward anything resembling a definition of the genre. After his review, people widely accept that post-rock music is any music that uses rock instruments for different musical arrangements.

What Defines Post-Rock?

It’s not easy to define any subgenre because influences are so fluid—for example, death metal is so much more than just guttural singing. However, the most accepted definition of post-rock says that it is a way of playing rock music that often contains techniques such as delay, reverb, and tremolo picking, with minimal or no vocals.Post-rock is a dismantling of traditional rock music that draws from other genres such as jazz, EDM, ambient, and even contemporary classical music. Many post-rock bands also draw influences from musique concrète, a French experimental genre that relies on recorded ambient sounds. This influence is most prevalent in the offshoot of the genre called ambient post-rock. The varied genre influences are found in song structure, which often resembles ambient soundscapes due to tone modulation and even instrument choice. Post-rock bands such as Yndi Halda, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and Sigur Ros use instruments such as violins and e-bows. Pianos and synthesizers have also been an important part of post-rock since the very beginning of the sub-genre.

Another common characteristic of post-rock is song length. While most traditional rock songs are short and snappy, post-rock songs build soundscapes that can last as long as 25 minutes and rarely stop before the five-minute mark. This however is not always the case some follow more of a basic rock song structure but deviate from traditional instrumentation. The rhythm section also veers from normalcy, giving drummers a bit more creative freedom and also more of a forward presence. I notable example of this is the Japanese band, Toe. Does Post-Rock Music Have Any Vocals?

Many people use genre labels to try to fit bands into boxes. That means that any band that uploads instrumental music without vocals to the Internet automatically gets labeled post-rock, and any post-rock band that has some vocals loses its credibility.

Although many post-rock collectives such as Explosions in the Sky and June in Winter focus on instrumental music, it’s not true that post-rock cannot have any vocals. The difference is that vocals in post-rock are treated as just another instrument, while in traditional rock the other instruments accompany the voice. There are a few different ways post-rock bands incorporate vocals into their music. The most famous is Sigur Ros, where frontman Jónsi Birgisson’s whispered falsetto is just as much part of the soundscape as the bow-played guitar. Other bands such as Maybeshewill use samples from movies and audio recordings to communicate their themes.

The Final Word on Post-Rock

If you want to learn more about post-rock, the best thing you can do is listen to it! On Spotify, you can seek out the post-rock genre tags or listen to playlists such as “Deep Focus” that often feature post-rock bands. Sometimes, these bands will be labeled as soundscape artists. Post-rock is defined by its lack of definition. Most bands begin playing in this genre because they want to play around and do what they please without following traditional rock structures, resulting in beautiful songs that create strong emotion and new soundscapes. Some bands lean towards slower darker and more somber compositions and others are more upbeat and uplifting. Our style leans a bit more on the brighter side of post-rock with a bit of indie & occasional post-punk flavors. What are your thoughts on Post-Rock?