More of that music, please.

September 12, 2014 1:59 PM

I am obsessed with this album by Explosions in the Sky, The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place. I like it because it tells a story without words and is neither boringly adult contemporary nor super metal. It's melodic and beautiful, and somehow both relaxing and energizing. Is there anything else like this? Even their other albums aren't quite what I'm after.

I've seen this previously, but the recommendations aren't quite as granular as I'd like -- specific albums or songs, please.

Bonus question: I want to view or make some kind of beautiful light show on a screen to go with this album, kind of like how the windows music player used to visualize your music for you back in the day. Does anyone know how if there's an app for that or if I can somehow make my own?

posted by woodvine to Media & Arts (16 answers total)

Everything by Godspeed, You Black Emperor.
posted by youcancallmeal at 2:03 PM on September 12, 2014 [7 favorites]

Red Sparowes, Every Red Heart Shines Toward the Red Sun, maybe. I certainly get lost in their stuff.
posted by Leon at 2:08 PM on September 12, 2014 [3 favorites]

God is An Astronaut, specifically the album, All is Violent, All is Bright
and the song, Suicide by Star
posted by tenaciousmoon at 2:11 PM on September 12, 2014 [3 favorites]

Best answer: Four Months of Darkness by Saxon Shore is very much like that. It's awesome and I think it tells a story more than any Mogwai albums, personally. It's only five songs though so I recommend them all. Saxon Shore does have several other albums, but Four Months of Darkness is my favorite. Be A Bright Blue is their first album and to me leans toward the Explosions In The Sky simplicity of guitars and drums. Then with each new album, the music gets more complicated and more like a Mogwai sort of layered sound. Four Months of Darkness is their second album so it's in between but does storytelling very well, IMO.

I went through a phase of loving instrumental music and some of it can just either be repetitive or overwrought. Each of Mogwai's albums have their own sound -- I liked Come On Die Young, but that would probably sound too "hard" for you.

I like the song "Can Anyone Who Has Heard This Music Really Be A Bad Person" by Kaki King. Songs "1975" and "Thirty" by Laterna are good.
posted by AppleTurnover at 2:18 PM on September 12, 2014 [1 favorite]

Mono: Hymn to the Immortal Wind
posted by davebush at 3:18 PM on September 12, 2014 [3 favorites]

M83 sometimes has that sort of cinematic, expansive feel that I think of when I think Explosions in the Sky. Try Gone, My Tears are Becoming a Sea, Steve McQueen, Coloring the Void to start with, though there are surely others that fit the bill across their discography. I'd also suggest the Mass Effect 3 soundtrack.

As for visualizations (which is the term for those light shows), you might try G-Force, or just google the terms "music visualization" for more ideas.
posted by axiom at 3:24 PM on September 12, 2014 [2 favorites]

I came to recommend Red Sparowes and Every Red Heart Shines Toward the Sun but while I was gathering links Leon beat me to it. Oh well..

Worth your time to check them out, I should think.
posted by Nerd of the North at 3:44 PM on September 12, 2014 [1 favorite]

Dirty Three - Horse Stories
posted by hydrophonic at 4:05 PM on September 12, 2014

Sigur Ros - Njosnavelin
posted by thewumpusisdead at 4:50 PM on September 12, 2014

yes to Godspeed You Black Emperor.
Also, Tortoise- Djed
posted by chbrooks at 9:04 PM on September 12, 2014 [1 favorite]

fuck buttons
posted by secretdawn at 9:39 PM on September 12, 2014

Signal Hill
This Will Destroy You
Tristeza
1/1
El Ten Eleven
Maserati
Tortoise

The genre is "post-rock."
posted by persona au gratin at 3:47 AM on September 13, 2014

A somewhat left field suggestion but try Chill Out by the KLF. Not the same orchestral sounds in the slightest but it's certainly a journey album.

Also, the two b sides on Sigur Ros Ny Battery single. They are fantastic.
posted by deadwax at 5:02 AM on September 13, 2014 [1 favorite]

Listening to the EITS album you linked to I'm really struck by how much they remind me of 80's post-punk 4AD instrumentalists Dif Juz. I think you may want to investigate their back catalogue. Maybe start with the Vibrating Air EP.
posted by Chairboy at 6:34 AM on September 13, 2014

Going by your description alone, I thought you might be looking for blessed out melodic shoegaze/nugaze, like Echodrone's Sun Rose in a Different Place or 93MillionMilesFromTheSun's "Tall Buildings in Large Cities" or Secret Shine's Untouched. But actually going back and revisiting the linked album, I agree with earlier posters: you're after classic postrock.

Some additional suggestions to go with those already listed:

Daturah, "Warmachines."
Laura, "Is There No Help for the Widow's Son?" and "Cambridge Bypass (both off Radio Swan Is Down).
Flying Saucer Attack, Flying Saucer Attack.
posted by Sonny Jim at 7:03 AM on September 13, 2014

drukqs by Aphex Twin does this for me.
posted by saladin at 3:24 PM on September 13, 2014