Grails take refuge in clean living
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Grails
Oregon's Grails (guitarists Alex Hall and Zak Riles, bassist William Slater, and drummer Emil Amos) played instrumental post-rock of a soothing kind. The vignettes of The Burden of Hope (Neurot, 2003), driven by the violin, were evocative and atmospheric, and covered a lot of ground. The Burden Of Hope transitions from sleepy jazzy noir to heroic climax in the best tradition of post-rock dynamics. The agonizing opening violin solo leads into the spectacularly anemic sub-blues jam The Deed. The melodies are so gratingly pathetic and solemn that here and there one hears eachoes of Zappa's mock-orchestral "genteel" music (In The Beginning). A folkish romp turns into rowdy southern boogie in Space Prophet Dogon. A mournful tremulous "whistle", a war-dance beat and western movie guitar twang sculpt the pathos of White Flag before it takes off with distorted psychedelic guitar worthy of Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd. For the sake of variety there is also room for the brief mournful guitar elegy a` la Leo Kottke of Lord I American instrumental rock band Grails Grails at La Maroquinerie, Paris 2009 Grails is an American instrumentalexperimental rock band formed in 1999. Based in Portland, Oregon, the group have released seven studio albums, on labels including Southern and Temporary Residence, and have toured across North America and Europe. Grails was formed under the name "Laurel Canyon" in 1999 by guitarist Alex Hall, drummer Emil Amos (also of Holy Sons and Om) and second guitarist Paul Spitz.[1] They garnered positive reactions following their first show, played on a whim. Portland musicians Timothy Horner (violin) and Bill Slater Grails is evocative, sinuous and unpredictable -- like all great music should be. So, it stands to reason that nearly everything written about the instrumental band’s music expounds on how much it reminds listeners of particular experiences, sights, moods, dreams… People react emotionally to the Portland, OR quintet’s powerfully evocative songs because they compel us to fill the gap between music and language. To quote one 20th Century sage, “instrumental music is Total Music.” There’s no voice to quaintly tell us how we should feel, only the emotive musical force moving us to understand and empathize. The anxious tension, extreme dynamics and urgent tone of Grails’ second album Red Light seems to briefly glance back upon the rather lush and even-keeled feel of its debut The Burden of Hope (often compared to Godspeed You Black Emperor, Dirty Three)…and then torches the path it has traveled. One part Miles Davis’ smoldering ferocity on Bitches Brew, one part Mussorgsky’s stirring anthems, one part Pink Floyd’s haunted lucidity, one part Dirty Three’s epic grandeur a
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Grails (band)
Origin Portland, Oregon, U.S. Genres Instrumental rock, post-rock, psychedelic rock Years active 1999–present Labels Neurot, Robotic Empire, Aurora Borealis, Southern, Temporary Residence, Important Records Members Past members Website grails.bandcamp.com History
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GRAILS