Explosions in the Sky has been at the very forefront of the resurgence in instrumental rock since their release of “How Strange, Innocence” in 2000. Since that debut, the group has built an extensive following thanks to their reverb-soaked guitar riffs and narrative LPs.
Indeed, even without lyrics, the music is astonishingly expressive. While guitarist Munaf Rayani noted in an interview with Clash Magazine that the group has experimented with lyrics, the emphasis remains on fleeting moments of ineffable gravity. “The Wilderness,” the group’s latest LP, does not deviate from that legacy.
“Wilderness” marks a return to the rock roots of Explosions in the Sky after five years of work on exquisite soundtracks like “Lone Survivor.” Nonetheless, the opening track introduces several new elements from their film work such as cello, piano and synthesizer. The song builds steadily on rippling guitar delay and mournful synthesizer melody and periodically breaks into piercing guitar solos. Indeed, “Wilderness” is louder and edgier than the preceding soundtracks. At the same time, the title track introduces a sound much darker and more desolate than the band’s last studio release, 2011’s “Take Care, Take Care, Take Care.”
Second track “The Ecstatics” is a confident score which transitions from blinking synthesizer arpeggios into a loud jam with powerful bass and shimmering guitar solos overtop. The song serves as some brief, upbeat relief before the album moves into “Tangle Formations.”
“Tangle” is an appropriate name, as the track begins with a creepy minor piano progression overtop strained guitar before transitioning into major driving rock with the band’s signature intertwined guitar solos. These two tracks both present unsettling ambience suddenly disturbed by powerful rock progressions. The motif is clear: confident rock progressions battle desolate and comparatively subdued riffs. Conflict builds from song to song.
With “Logic of a Dream” and “Disintegration Anxiety,” “Wilderness” reaches its climax. The songs spin through eruptions of surreal synthesizer breaks bordered by low, driving rock rhythms. The result is music full of shock and evident pain. These songs truly give soul to the title of the album. This wilderness is not one of exploration and wonder, but rather represents a crisis of desolation and isolation.
Explosions in the Sky doesn’t leave the album in darkness. “Infinite Orbit” restores the driving rock before finishing track “Landing Cliffs.” The closing song is truly a landing. With layers of reverbed guitar shimmering overtop one another in major arpeggios, the song bestows a sense of tripped-out bliss after such a troubled musical journey.
Though “Wilderness” confronts dark demons unprecedented in the previous works of Explosions in the Sky, the album holds true to the group’s legacy of crafting albums which sound more like carefully-constructed symphonies. Without a doubt, Explosions in the Sky has released another beautiful work of instrumental rock.
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