Website
Music
Noisesome
Buy

Score: 7/10

With the wide assortment of groups dominating the guitar-based post-rock genre presently, it’s not difficult to find more than a handful of groups that miss the mark.  Caustic modulation and sporadic, overdone instrumentation has made me hesitant to introduce myself to new musicians.  Often groups with genuine potential are lost within the genre’s wide spectrum containing countless lackluster and down-right awful groups.  Suffice to say, I haven’t exactly been looking at post-rock through rose colored glasses lately.  When I approached the RE : EP by Belgian post-rock ensemble Motek, I felt this biased sentiment bleeding into my initial opinion.  What I expected of this group turned out to be far less than what I received.  I was pleasantly surprised, hearing strong, beautifully arranged compositions and not contrary to the group’s website headline, the music is an ideal soundtrack for the myriad of emotional experiences orchestrating the everyday.

I read the the group’s statement after listening to their EP in its entirety, thankfully.  Their self-described drive for ‘sultry recollections of forgotten emotional states’ didn’t remotely describe my listening experience.  The instrumentation seemed to cultivate an atmosphere comparable to a clouded reverie or an achingly distant memory,  conjuring feelings of melancholy and loss tempered with optimism and hope.  The word ‘sultry’ seems to be an adjective that is far too limiting for this group’s multi-dimensional sensory sound:  the instruments mesh into each other without drowning the compositions with overdone guitar effects,  the quiet vocal additions bring a more sumptuous emotionality to the already moody arrangements, and  the soothing, whispered lyrics surmount the instrumentation without climbing to the top of the musical hierarchy.  In fact, the vocals carry the compositions to a new level, subtly developing and deepening the sound. 

However, there are elements of the RE : EP that seem to be contradictory in quality and serve to abruptly change the mood; such as the stop-start percussive moments in De Ulucht and the bare piano work in the introductory measures of Maybe I’ll Go Home .  Though the RE : EP is just a paltry four songs I find myself thirsty for more from this group and one day I anticipate sating this desire with a full album.

–P.J. Stevenson

You must be logged in to submit a comment.