Review: Ester Drang - Rocinate (or) does anyone else feel this way?

Posted on 16 February 2006 | 4 Comments

Filed Under: Album Reviews, Indie Rock, Post Rock

--

I’ll be the first person to admit that I am not the hippest and most in-the-know blogger around. (For the most part) you won’t find too much breaking news or posts about the next big thing months before they explode. I am decidedly uncool. I’ve never heard a single Cat Power tune. I don’t own any Belle And Sebastian albums. I haven’t written a word (until now) about We Are Scientists and The National just isn’t my thing. I oftentimes get totally lost shuffling through the sea of new bands being posted about by people like GVB, YANP, and MOKB. Its a lot to make sense of so I generally leave that to the professionals. There is so much great new music out there but the sheer volume of it all is almost overwhelming.

All that being said (sorry for the rant) I can almost guarantee that I will like anything released by Jade Tree. Whether it is Pedro The Lion, Cub Country, Zero Zero, or Breather Resist, quality is part of everything Jade Tree does.

One of the label’s recent releases is from Oklahoma’s Ester Drang. And while I wasn’t familiar with anything but their name until now, their latest album Rocinate has been captivating me all week. The band knocks out ethereal post-gazer rock that incorporates a vast array of instrumentation. Rocinate is a diverse, hypnotic, and unpredictable album that touches on almost every musical genre I can think of but manages to have one singular vision. It is ambitious but somehow remains a cohesive whole.

MP3 | Ester Drang – Valencia’s Dying Dream Rocinate
MP3 | Ester Drang – Great Expectations Rocinate

Comments

1 JT - 962 days ago Good call on this one. I do enjoy a little bit of this now and then, but I must admit, haven't been sinking my teeth into rock too much of late.

Oh, and excellent call on that Dusty Baker site. Hilarious stuff, and even though it's obviously satirical, I could definitely see Dusty writing like this. Heck, we all know he talks that way, dudes.

2 Justin - 962 days ago I feel the same way on the entirely overwhelming amount of music that flys our way. I find myself not listening to stuff I'm downloading...tell me why?

Exactly...it's silly to do that...

3 matthew - 962 days ago jade tree has never let me down. and you should probably check out cat power.

4 Tim Young - 962 days ago I feel the same as you about the new music thing. I just had a big discussion on the elbo.ws forum about guys who post whole albums of stuff months before it's released. I got talked down unfortunately!

Don't worry about Belle and Sebastian. Their best song is 'Dog on Wheels' and they did that many years ago .. downhill ever since I'm afraid! I hope you are listening to the Jenny Lewis LP though!