Collapse Under The Empire - Find A Place To Be Safe

 

Instrumental “post-rock” commanded a great deal of attention and respect during its initial explosion in the early 90s, but what was once dripping with ideas is now dry as a bone. A reliance on countless effects pedals, compulsory soft/loud progressions and abstracted melodrama has worn thinner than a violin string, yet many new bands continue to trudge wholeheartedly down these tiresome paths on their quest for personal expression. This German duo no doubt take themselves quite seriously, but that goes without saying. Musical ideas that would have (potentially) sounded tolerable in the not-too-distant past now come off like the incidental soundtrack to a poorly conceived teen reality show or warmed-over public service advert. Ultimately they end up sounding like the biggest names within the aforementioned pseudo-genre over the course of eleven tracks, even breaking out the toy xylophone and putting some granular distortion on the piano at one point. Enough already. [Eric Ledford]