Search - Shora :: Malval

WAY more than just a post-rock record

Aquarius Records | San Francisco | 05/14/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It's been a struggle to figure out what to write about this record. It's a gorgeous moody slab of blissed out mathy post rock. I love that stuff. A lot. But it's really difficult to explain exactly why this record is somehow WAY more than just a post-rock record. It's maybe MORE, more moody, more mathy, more blissed out, but there's still some ineffable thing that turns Shora into a whole other proposition. Similar to the way that Fuehler and Turing Machine in the past took the sound of their post rock forefathers to whole new realms, Shora breathe new life, breathe fire even, into what has become the sound du riguer of the indie underground. How exactly is a bit tougher to pin down.



It's very repetitive, some riffs practically become loops, repeating over and over, inducing some serious mesmeric listening, each looped post-rock-scape is underpinned by dense but complex krautrocky rhythms, that occasionally explode into spikey tangles of free jazz mathrock octopoidal polyrhythms before settling back into dreamy head nodding grooves. The guitars are like chameleons, snakey smokey tendrils one second, huge jagged metallic shards the next, turning from bell like chimes into slinky slippery smears of sound all within a matter of seconds. Majestic, haunting, repetitive and completely fascinating. That's just the first three tracks too, 24 minutes of dense, layered, experimental instrumental rock music perfection.



Then there's the very strange final track, which starts out as a soft focused dreamscape, all gauzy and shimmery, before out of the blue, down comees a blast of bizarre pounding Gary Glitter sounding glam rock stomp, right there in the middle of the song! The stomp quickly gives way to some organ drenched Goblin worship before slipping softly back into dark droney ambience. But that's not all, suddenly there are female vocals, and not wispy soft ones, no we're talking a throaty belt, more PJ Harvey than Grouper or Paavoharju, at first it's a little bit jarring, but after a few moments it makes perfect sense. But it only lasts a few moments. Which is maybe indicative of why this band is so great. Putting that much thought into a tiny part, and finding a vocalist, coming up with melodies, lyrics, all for the last minute or two of the last song on your record. Few bands would bother. Which is precisely the point Ithinks. It's easy to tell that the same sort of meticulous preparation and deep thought went into every part of this record. But without sacrificing any of the passion or immediacy that makes music so vital. Which is a rare thing indeed."

Definitive MUSIC

Lord of Karma | Singapore | 06/25/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I rate Shora's Malval very highly, simply put. Many people see music through the tinted glasses of society. Useful labels for categorisation, such as "hip hop", "post rock", have become unnecessarily restrictive. So 50 Cent's music is poor, that doesn't say anything about MCs like Gift of Gab or GZA who make excellent verses. Just because Shora's music is labelled as post rock, doesn't mean one has to know about or listen to a gigantic load of post rock to enjoy this _music_.



That's what everything is at heart, music. Sure, Shora's record is the best post rock record in my book, but that's ultimately of little value. It IS great music.



Why this little tirade? Well, precisely because it is great music, that the fact the sheer amount of people who have heard this life changing music is such a small number is so very indicative of this restrictive scene mentality in music today.



Spread the word, let your friends listen to this record! If great music is to really be celebrated in society and transcend the "scene", then the "scenesters" will have to spread the word beyond this all too small community.



About this album: "Life Changing". That is all you need to know."