#39 - Hex

#39
Artist: Bark Psychosis
Album: Hex
Year of Release: 1994
Label: Caroline Distribution

Speaking of post-rock, here's the album that birthed the term.  Critic Simon Reynolds coined the phrase in his review of Hex and later clarified that he defined post-rock as "using rock instrumentation for non-rock purposes, using guitars as facilitators of timbre and textures rather than riffs and power chords."  I don't think that description applies to everything under the umbrella of post-rock (as much of the genre does indeed rock).  But it applies perfectly to this record and is better than any description I could give.

The album cover is itself nothing special.  But take one look at it and then listen to the album and you'll never picture anything else while listening to it again.  A nondescript field outside some sort of industrial area during twilight...feels right.

One thing weird about my brain is that I get certain 15-second segments of songs trapped in there and they end up sticking out in future listens both for better and for worse.  The opening track "The Loom" has one of these moments where the violin part drops out about a minute in and it's wonderful.  But now I always anticipate that part and then feel slightly let down for the rest of the song.  Maybe there are pills for this.