Helms - Robots Are Great, But Are We Ready For Them to Dance on Their Own? - From the CD McCarthy

For a long time now I've been wondering--we've ALL been wondering --what the fuck is postrock, and you know what? I'm still no closer to knowing than I was when I heard Spiderland for the first time.

But knowledge comes in little pieces, and it was today while listening to Helms and their jiggy little tune about robots who dance that I found myself able to formulate Rastronomicals' Critical Theory of Dialectical Postrock Dynamics, which says that

 Postrock shall fall into two forms: the noodly and the propulsive 

Upon closer inspection of this postulate I had wrought, I'm seeing that my new Critical Theory relies on the previously developed Second Axiom of Invariate Musical Intensity, to wit:

 noodly is bad and propulsive is good^*

Of course, this is not to say that music outside the postrock realm might not be noodly AND propulsive (witness your better King Crimson tunes), or indeed, that some music might be neither noodly NOR propulsive. [Most of what is called ambient--as well as the entire Sunn O))) catalog--seems to fit the bill as far as that last goes].

Nope, just sayin', that while a lot of the postrock that crosses our desk here at La Historia World Headquarters seems to spin in place goofily like the propeller on the head of that Quisp cereal dude, this Helms music is pretty kinetic stuff. This song's got torque, if you will: the ratio of energy expended to new ground covered is pretty low.

And of course it's got the robot thing going on, as well. I know that Calla's "Truth About Robots" and Bailterspace's "Robot World" are also floating around in my iLibrary, but those guys, as cool as they are, don't have their 'bots doing the terpsichore. What this really makes me think of is Nine Planets Without Intelligent Life, one of the cooler webcomics I've come across recently. While the author pretty much tells us that his robots don't in fact dance, they DO have wanderlust, ennui, erogenous zone circuits, and most importantly, a Bohemian Drive.



Nine Planets is providing the creepiest possible answer to the question Helms has asked: that it won't matter once the humans are gone, anyway.

Helms - McCarthy - 10 - Robots Are Great, But Are We Ready For Them To Dance On Their Own.mp3

192 kbps mp3, up for 6 weeks (or more) (Right click and save as target)

File under: Postrock, Metal Machine Music

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^*No shit, huh? But it's important to understand your assumptions. (Return)