Temporary Residence 99

The electric guitar can chime, screech and sustain in a number of ways. Since the '60s, various artists have kicked this topic of exploration back and forth between the mainstream (Beatles, The Who) and the fringes (Glenn Branca, Rhys Chatham), but it hasn’t lost its novelty. Or, at least, it probably hasn’t for you if you’re reading this website.

Explosions In The Sky are both guitar explorers and, like most recent instrumental rock artists, often classified as post-rock. For some post-rockers, though, Martin Denny, fusion and punk serve the purpose that Campbell’s soup cans served for Andy Warhol, while others are more like surveyors of territory hit by a hurricane. Explosions In The Sky fall into the latter category.

Like their Friday Night Lights soundtrack, All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone has a ready supply of attractive multi-guitar counterpoint passages. Unlike that calmer previous work, it also has a handful of incendiary peaks, bolstered by a Bonham-caliber roomy drum sound. After a while, though, the patterns of alternating surging and contemplation, of major keys slipping in and out of reach, become repetitive.

As with many post-rock groups, though, one suspects that variety isn’t the key here. Substitute the more benign “fireworks” for “explosions” in the band name and you’ll have a sense of the images evoked by these instrumental pieces. Like fireworks displays, these pieces would likely lose their novelty with repeated viewings, but make for at least one or two positive memories a year.