Maudlin of the Well - Part the Second

Maudlin of the Well released three now-legendary LPs from 1999-2001 that blended death metal, free jazz, and progressive in a varied and beautiful way that had only been hinted at by bands from the early 90s like Cynic. Toby Driver, leader of Maudlin of the Well, decided to fold Maudlin of the Well and create Kayo Dot, a band that used MotW's innovations as a starting point to explore even more seamless avant garde combinations of the aforementioned genres. In the process, Driver had to shelve a few significant but unfinished song ideas that he has recently recorded thanks to generous donations from his most loyal fans. The resulting recording, Part the Second definitely feels like the "next step" after 2001's Leaving Your Body Map, but really integrates ideas from throughout Driver's career and even some unexpected influences. Part the Second is a beautiful and intelligent album, with maybe only a few acoustic tracks missing for the sake of sating an old Maudlin of the Well fan's nostalgia for a verbatim revisiting of ideas on the three previous LPs. Regardless, make sure you experience Toby Driver past, present, and future.

Part the Second [2009] - Free Download - Review

Gospel - The Magic Volume of Dark Matter

Gospel is the most inventive band to ever be associated with emo. Though that's a lofty claim, I think I'm off the hook because of emo's inherent narrowness, and the fact that Gospel isn't really an emo group. When they broke up in 2006, apparently they were working on the follow up to The Moon Is a Dead World. The only artifact of that creative process is the bootleg The Magic Volume of Dark Matter. It was recorded on February 2nd, 2006 and shows Gospel going deeper down the psychedelic, progged out rabbit hole they were first exploring on their debut LP. The song is 23 minutes and runs through a ridiculous number of section changes, them jamming out all the while. Though it's a rough cut and there's probably a lot of improvisation, the track is absolutely awesome and serves as a pleasant if underwhelming swan song for Gospel's too short career. Thanks to Jared from Last Train to Cool for the look on this one. Included is the bootleg and a live video of the performance.

The Magic Volume of Dark Matter [2006] - Download

Part 1

Part 2

Grails - Doomsdayer's Holiday

Grails' 2004 album Redlight ruled in all possible ways. Their 2007 album Burning Off Impurities did not. They shifted from being a concise post-rock band to a psychedelic jam band that tossed in Eastern instrumentation all over the place. Short of assuming Grails went on a pilgrimage to India and met Ravi Shankar, I'll just say their musical direction changed. Doomsdayer's Holiday does something to reconcile those two worlds. The Eastern influences and jamminess are no longer endless and open-ended and as a result the songs have regained organization and arc. This album comes highly recommended for fans of post-rock, classic rock, or prog looking for something very different.

Doomsdayer's Holiday [2008] - Download - Review

Maudlin of the Well - Discography

Maudlin of the Well was Toby Driver's first project that existed while he was studying at Hampshire College. They released three massive LPs that got more melodic as they progressed.

My Fruit Psychobells...A Seed Combustible (1999) - Download - Review


Bath (2001) - Download - Review


Leaving Your Body Map (2001) - Download - Review

Gospel - The Moon Is a Dead World

Gospel is a band that surprised the hell out of me. I think I was linked to a song by another band back in the day because I remembered my first impression of Gospel was that they were turgid and bland. Nothing could be more unbefitting of Gospel's awesome mix of emo, post-rock, and prog. Imagine the towering scope of an album like As the Roots Undo by Circle Takes the Square without pretention or loftiness and an odd sense of rhythmic structures and a drummer that absolutely kills. There are even flourishes of keyboards and weird effects that aren't incongruous with the more emo songwriting. A really singular album that I'm sad I only got into about 3 weeks ago. They have since broken up and The Moon Is a Dead World is their sole LP.

The Moon Is a Dead World (2005) - Download - Review