We have a soft spot for killer instrumental bands. Yeah, we know you’ve heard Explosions in the Sky — but we thought we’d brew you a cup of tea with a little extra spice for your daily routine. Our contributor Dylan Garcia made a list of a few instrumental bands that have been our Haus favorites for some time. So here, try this Venti. We can’t promise we spelled your name right though.
Three Trapped Tigers
Making noise all the way from London, this experimental trio offers a new type of ambience and electronica, melded with a type of post-math-rock. I first came across this noise rock, synthesizer driven band when I heard Letlive was touring with Deftones (Deftones have a knack for picking up great bands, even if they only have a small following). Turns out, Chino Moreno had been digging them for a while and finally made the steps to get them on their UK tour. I’ve also spotted Billy Rymer of The Dillinger Escape Plan sporting a TTT shirt (they toured with Dillinger in 2012).
What’s great about TTT is that you’re always on a rollercoaster — a touch of classical and jazzy piano, odd time signatures, 8-bit sounds and video-game-like synth effects blended with simplicity. Each of these members brings a talent to the table, and each are capable of stepping back and letting another forefront a song at any given moment. If you’re into the sometimes spacy, sometimes groovy, and sometimes heavy sounding, you’ve found the right band.
Trioscapes
This isn’t just a group of artists and musicians – this is a group of fully fledged composers. It’s jazz for the progressive math metalheads masterminded by Between The Buried And Me bassist Dan Briggs.
I can’t stress enough how talented this band is. Every member is consistently playing something so wildly entertaining that you’ll be both mesmerized and confused trying to comprehend what went into their writing process. With the funny noise samples (*boing*) and screeching saxophone, somehow Trioscapes’ synergy seems to keep on-point amidst the chaos.
I laughed at how amazing this band was when I first started listening to them, and I still laugh to this day. Ryan put it best, they’re “pleasantly schizophrenic.”
Enemies
Albeit, I’m partial to progressive/experimental indie rock, but Enemies is here to save us from the messiness of modern music and bring us back to a blissful place, a place where you’re able to paint a quaint picture of your best reality (which may be a forest landscape at dusk).
What Enemies does best is demonstrate the art of a buildup and good energy, and they write scores centered around awe-inspiring guitar riffs. The chemistry of the band members speaks for itself on tracks like “Creamist” and “Gingerly” (the latter being one of the best short epic songs you’ll ever hear).
Since their inception they’ve shown what the human soundtrack should be like with all of their feel-good releases. The Irish rock group has three EP’s and two LP’s, and their latest, Embark, Embrace, displays the heavier side of the coin. Enemies reflects a lot of what Japan is putting out today in the instrumental post-rock rock scene, including the works of Toe, LITE, and Te’. Enemies… A class act.