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Post-Rock Gigs in Bristol

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Bristol's Post-rock Scene

What ever happened to post-rock?

Britannica defines post rock as a form of experimental rock that incorporates aspects of jazz and electronica, so what happened to the genre that was so popular in the 90s and 00s. Bands like Mogwai and Tortoise have gone quiet and local Bristol post-rock acts too. The problem with post-rock is that it’s so loosely defined, that it hasn’t really gone away or at all. Rather than decline, the term has just gone out of fashion. Post-rock lives on in the fusion-ready music of local Bristol acts like Ishmael ensemble. With many kids that would’ve been rockstars in the 90s, now making electronica - maybe we should call this post-post-rock now?

What we said in 2015
Right now Bristol’s post-rock and alternative rock scene is at it’s healthiest for years. In addition to some excellent local venues and consistently strong live bookings, we also have promoters like Simple Things purveying some of the boldest festival programming in the UK. Recent Simple Things events have paired post-rock headliners like Mogwai and Godspeed You! Black Emperor with cutting edge electronic music and innovative techno producers. In terms of consistent Bristol venues for alternative rock - The Exchange, The Stag And Hounds and The Fleece (who’s past bookings include Thee Silver Mt Zion and Deerhoof) lead the way. The Thekla also makes solid bookings (past guests include 65daysofstatic, And So I Watch You From Afar) and annual ArcTanGent Festival is not to be missed.

Buy tickets for post-rock events in Bristol

Our recent post-rock recommendations

Witness the labyrinthine rituals of Bristol alt-rock alchemists Life in Mono... grunge grit, noir atmospherics, and post-rock thunder swell into a cyclone with Sarah Clayton’s siren vocals at the centre. A cinematic incantation FFO: PJ Harvey, Brutus, Portishead, Jehnny Beth. Their sound is dark, immersive, and bristling with atmosphere — both on record and in their explosive live shows.

With The Little Unsaid, anything can happen: restless post‑rock folk entwines with spectral electronica, squelchy pulses, and vaporous soundscapes. This'll hit with fans of: Nick Cave, Four Tet, Joan Shelley, The Weather Station. { weird-folk-post-rock-prog-jazz-alt-electronica }

Bristol instrumental three-piece Last Hyena launch a new EP stacked with gibbering riffs and untamed post-rock surges, wrung from complex clockwork rhythms. A maelstrom of unsentimental melody and motorik propulsion FFO: HAAL, A Burial at Sea, Explosions In The Sky, ISIS. Suspect Your Elders EP launch

The triumphant ascension of post-folk post-rockers Quade was inevitable. Their second slab of wax for uber tastemakers AD 93 (Coby Sey, Moin etc) conjures a sacred soundworld akin to Slint playing a Deadwood funeral, or Talk Talk’s long lost Warren Ellis collab. They’re perfectly paired with Jasmine Wood’s post-classical reverb dreams for an evening of pastoral longing and sullen beauty. Bristol purveyors of cinematic, ambient post-rock Quade play their last Bristol show for the foreseeable. A double headline show with AD 93 labelmate Jasmine Wood, who plays ghostly ambient and modern classical

What our editors say

“KATATONIA released their triumphant Napalm Records debut, Sky Void of Stars, in 2023 to the enthrallment of critics and fans alike. The album showcases their brilliant, genre-defying fusion of melodic death metal and atmospheric post rock. Following its release, the band jumped on a massive headline tour across Europe and the UK alongside Sólstafir and SOM.”
From: Katatonia

“We're thrilled to invite back Jennifer Walton to her second Enter the Noid slot having played our first ever show at the ICA back in June 2023. In the time between, she's gone from strength to strength; contributing electronic elements on Caroline's second album, forming an unstoppable supergroup called Microplastics with aya & 96 Back and releasing her debut album, 'Daughters' on Local Action last month to an exceptionally warm critical response. Her singular output blends post rock & slowcore structures with hyperpop-indebted vocal manipulations moments of crescending orchestral euphoria.”
From: Jennifer Walton, Shoplifting1080p, Lowkey-E + DJs

“Self-taught pianist and composer Daniel Inzani has been a pivotal figure on the Bristol alternative music scene for more than a decade. He leads a neoclassical chamber quartet Spindle Ensemble, co-curates Hidden Notes Festival in Stroud, and he’s worked with a baffling array of outfits, playing Ethiopian funk, Indonesian gamelan, rocksteady, 1950s-style exotica and post rock, as well as working closely with fellow maverick musicians Alabaster dePlume and Cosmo Sheldrake.”
From: PLAY

“In just a thunderous 16 minutes, it fashions blistered no wave collages out of skronking guitars, noirish jazz piano, and fragile, spidery sprechstimme monologues – genuinely volatile, uncomfortable music that combines the cinematic high drama of post rock with jazz detritus and the gristly, sinewy guitar noise of Albini, Ranaldo or Branca at their butchering best.”
From: EX AGENT RELEASE PARTY || MONIKA BADLY X DAN JOHNSON || D/RK-HUMR X TLK

““The fifth album - created entirely in his native Sardinia - Pathei Mathos confirms the post rock project S A R R A M as a rich and highly emotional masterpiece. There is a lot to discover and experience here."”
From: SARRAM / SHE THE THRONE / MONIKA BADLY / KIM ORGANCHRIST