EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY + EVA LUNNY – CHALK, BRIGHTON 16.8.24
If I had to create a top ten list of my favourite specific styles or genres of music, then post-rock would definitely crack my top three, at least! I mean, where do you start with it? My first stirrings of the more familiar aspects of the genre rooted in hearing Mogwai’s ‘Kids Will Be Skeletons’ at the age of 14, before owning digital copies of records by This Will Destroy You and Sigur Rós after turning 16. It was the 2017 Godspeed You! Black Emperor record ‘Luciferian Towers’ that began to shift my perception of the style towards the love I have for it to this day as I would discover endless outfits and quintessential proponents of the genre such as late-era Talk Talk, 65daysofstatic, and one of the most emotionally gratifying acts to come out of the genre, and your Friday night guests at Brighton’s Chalk, Explosions In The Sky.
Spanning 25 years in operation, the quartet of drummer Chris Hrasky, and guitarists Michael James, Munaf Rayani and Mark Smith have all remained constant across their catalogue of eight studio records and a handful of film scores, all containing blissful and uplifting planes of post-rock and instrumental rock compositions. The most notable record of theirs, 2003’s ‘The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place’, featured some of my favourite post-rock tracks that was given many a spin on my college study playlist, with the opening track, ‘First Breath After Coma’ continuing to be regarded as a post-rock essential. The four-piece have enjoyed a lengthy world tour in support of their most recent record, ‘End’ (confirmed by the band not to be their final release), arriving at Chalk for an incredible night of beauty, distortion and longing nostalgia.
Opening for Explosions In The Sky is the luscious and atmospheric musical workings of Eva Lunny, a composer and harpist who I’ve had the pleasure of seeing live before supporting William Doyle at Alphabet back in March! After 75 minutes of mulling around after doors opened, the crowd began to gather in their dozens as Eva walked onto the stage and sat down at her harp. She opens her five-song set with the opening track from her ‘Sonics & Meditations’ album from last year, entitled ‘Improvised Lullaby’, which sits itself around a repeated melodic phrase, tinged with cavernous reverb and vibrato treatments on the harp strings, creating a bewildering yet mystical sound. The crowd commend her performance as she freezes the decaying reverb in the track’s final moments before transitioning to a currently unnamed piece. On this track, Eva demonstrates a distinctive display of spatial awareness in her performances, giving each note and phrase in the piece enough room to breath, as well as scraping the wooden panels of the harp, which, coupled with the long-decaying reverb, creates the sound of sands blowing against the angelic strings.
‘What You Needed’, for me, evoked the feeling of waltzing in the dark as these delaying A major melodies held me captive in Eva’s music before she introduced some sub bass tones via MIDI keyboard. The penultimate piece, also unnamed, opens up with some muffled reverberated backdrops creating a more cavernous and spacious arrangement compared to the rest of her set, looser in rhythm with the delaying notes of her harp falling in the background like raindrops. Before Eva plays us out with her final piece for the night, she gives thanks to Melting Vinyl for having her play, and to Explosions In The Sky, stating that it is an honour to open for a band as special as they. ‘Finally Home’ is a fittingly gorgeous end to the set, albeit the most skeletal piece performed by Eva with its sparse melodic structure and patient chord changes. There are some stunningly beautiful major 6th intervals she plays around with towards the front end of the song, which, if you’re a musician competent with music theory, gives you that warm and nostalgic feeling that comes with such a sound.
Eva Lunny:
Eva Lunny – harp, electronics
Eva Lunny setlist:
‘Improvised Lullaby’
‘Unnamed Piece’
‘What You Needed’
‘Unnamed piece’
‘Finally Home’
A subsequent 40 minutes elapsed before the Texan quartet of Explosions In The Sky, plus touring and session musician Jay Demko on various instrumental duties of guitars, bass, keys and percussion, joined the stage to an eruption of cheer. They prelude their set with a moment of thanks to Eva Lunny for a beautiful set, as well as confessing their love for Brighton every time they play here! As the opening high guitar A notes shrill in the opening leg to ‘First Breath After Coma’, immediately, that familiar heartwarming tinge you typically experience from the post-rock genre hits by the opening chords. Guitarist Mark Smith, proudly repping a T-shirt featuring ambient icons Stars of the Lid (RIP Brian McBride), begins to lead the band into a build-up of reverberated guitars, next to Chris Hrasky’s marching snares and malletted cymbal performances. The piece treks into stop-start hits in the build-up before rising into noisy and anthemic textures that reach a fever pitch in a perfect example of what Explosions In The Sky have been displaying for the last two and a half decades. The second track, ‘Catastrophe And The Cure’, makes use of more heavy and weighted soundscapes in a 6/8 groove, with guitarist Munaf Rayani joining Chris in a dualling snare drum performance towards the back end of the track.
The band play the first of three songs from their ‘End’ album, entitled ‘Loved Ones’, a track that begins with an opening drone and repeating bass note, before heading into a section that reminds me a little of Brian Eno’s ‘The Big Ship’. Michael James’ heavy guitarwork and Jay’s pianos create a lucid atmosphere that quickly erupts into distortion with some very Mogwai-esque tones and progressions. As per several times within the set, they seamlessly transition into the following song, ‘The Birth And Death Of The Day’. This track features the most chaotic and tense introduction to a track yet, with Chris pounding the living daylights out of his floor tom. Eventually, the noise filters down to a fast shuffling kick and guitar interplay before switching into a polyrhythm and changing key. This is one of the many instances in the set where Explosions In The Sky demonstrate their total synergy as a band unit, with unison hits and stabs and meticulous arrangements abound! One of my favourite tracks of the set, ‘Peace Or Quiet’, spends the most part operating in a more patient atmosphere with shimmering pianos and picked bassline before a sudden wave of distortion and euphoria hits me in the closing moments, wow!
The track ‘With Tired Eyes, Tired Minds, Tired Souls, We Slept’ is one of the more expansive and explorative tracks in the band’s setlist, with various key and chord changes, as well as a more sombre melodic arrangement against some rolling snares. The second leg of this track maintains a more post-punk-based drum groove against roaring blows of distorted guitars, with Munaf utilising some E-Bow drones within some ambient loops transitioning into the following cut, ‘Your Hand In Mine’ from their 2003 classic ‘The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place’. One of the band’s most angelic pieces, the waltzing progression and polyrhythmic guitar interplay in this track creates the bittersweet and longing feeling often found in their work. Suddenly, the lighting turns blood red as we approach the track ‘The Fight’, which begins with some bass and guitar textures that create the feeling of submersion and underwater uncomfort, before reaching monolithic peaks towards the final moments. A wave of cheer arrives at the introduction of the closing track of the night, the fan favourite ‘The Only Moment We Were Alone’, which opens with some gentle ride tapping before Munaf hits his guitar creating a thunderous reverberated pounding noise. The performance dives through odysseys of post-rock bliss and warmth as it reaches extreme highs of distortion and exultation before the band all stamp their pedals to bring the song to a sudden halt to close out their set!
I must say, after several years of having Explosions In The Sky laying somewhat dormant since discovering them as a mid-teenager, being given the chance to see them live and review them has been one of the most gratifying and fantastic moments in my time with Brighton & Hove News, and I can’t thank the band enough for providing myself and the crowd with one post-rock gem after another, complete with synergetic performances and endless cinematic journeys.
Explosions In The Sky:
Chris Hrasky – drums
Michael James – guitar, bass guitar, keyboards
Munaf Rayani – guitar, keyboards, percussion
Mark Smith – guitar, keyboards
Jay Demko – bass guitar, guitar, keyboards, percussion
Explosions In The Sky setlist:
‘First Breath After Coma’ (from 2003 ‘The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place’ album)
‘Catastrophe And The Cure’ (from 2007 ‘All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone’ album)
‘Loved Ones’ (from 2024 ‘End’ album)
‘The Birth And Death Of The Day’ (from 2007 ‘All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone’ album)
‘Peace Or Quiet’ (from 2024 ‘End’ album)
‘With Tired Eyes, Tired Minds, Tired Souls, We Slept’ (from 2001 ‘Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Live Forever’ album)
‘Your Hand In Mine’ (from 2003 ‘The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place’ album)
‘The Fight’ (from 2024 ‘End’ album)
‘The Only Moment We Were Alone’ (from 2003 ‘The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place’ album)
