Well it finally happened, the record is out and we've got a living room full of LPs and CDs to send off to each and every one of you.
I just want to say thanks so much to Adam from Futurerecordings and Medi from Shelsmusic for making this possible and everyone who helped out with this project and I hope everyone enjoys this record as much as i enjoy being finished working on it... just kidding.
I haven't seen it yet but there is a review of the new rock sound magazine that involves: 8/10 "TAOE possess a classicism that genuinely sets them apart from so many of their supposed peers"
In addition these people had the following nice things to say about the record:
Rated 4\5 by Dan Jones
It's fair to say you don't hear many albums with as epic a scope as From This Vantage every day. While we're faced with an ever expanding sea of nondescript post-rock bands clambering for our attention in 2010, The Ascent of Everest have always stood out from the crowd, and the Tennessee outfit's second full-length From This Vantage serves to elevate them further ahead of the chasing pack.
Opening track 'Trapped Behind Silence' slowly builds to lay the foundation for 'Return To Us' to come along and showcase why this eight, yes eight-piece are quite so special, with its grandiose, multi-layered orchestral soundscapes and brilliant ethereal vocals. When lesser post-rock acts incorporate instruments such as violas, violins and cellos, into their music is can often sound shoehorned in just for the sake of it avoiding traditional rock instruments, but with The Ascent of Everest they're beautifully intertwined and essential to the overall pieces, such as on the string soaked 'Safely Caged In Bone' which is nothing less than stunning.
Although their 2008 debut How Lonely Sits The City made many sit up and take notice of The Ascent of Everest talents, you can't help but feel From This Vantage is going to do so much more than that, as you'd have to possess a heart of stone not to be moved by its unforgettable craft and beauty.
| Summary: Breaking the post-rock mould |
Well – nobody expected this. If their split LP was anything to go by, we were given every reason to think that the new ‘Everest album would simply be another addition to their catalogue of quintessentially titanic post-rock crescendo-fests. Even the band name sounds like a mission statement, a commitment to scale the most mountainous of musical parabolas. Clearly, their forte was taking this classic template and re-invigorating it; anything other than this they simply did not indulge in. Surely, this was a post-rock band very much content to stay a post-rock band, thank you very much. Or so we thought. ‘From This Vantage’ is a decided departure from this style, although a lot of the time, it doesn’t exactly feel like it; unexpected and substantial as the change is, it’s still very much an ‘Everest album. When the word ‘progression’ in post-rock isn’t referring to a crescendo, then we have something to get excited about.
A lot of this continuity has to do with the albums core sound, which is very recognisable as being of the band. Gratuitous, varied and highly inventive use of strings? Check. Immaculate pacing and attention to detail within the assorted song construction? Check. Angelic, wispy, half-heard shoegaze-esque vocals? One big, seriously impressed check please. If you’ve listened to their debut, it’s very familiar scenery – but what they’ve done with the landscape is strikingly different. While there is something of a development in the tracks themselves, it can’t exactly be called post-rock. There are parabolas, but they do not tower as they once did. These song structures mean that this is an album where their influences are taken less from the genre where they have already proven themselves, but more from a fusion of ambience and of more conventional indie.
The formula works. This album pulls off something fairly unique, a hybrid of several influences that retains the energy, focus and pizzazz of their post-rock tendencies, whilst borrowing heavily from the many variations, intricacies and general musical come-and-go within the song (tracks being typically around half the length of their previous work) are influences felt perhaps from their futurerecording label mates, such as the band they shared a split LP with, we all inherit the moon; an ambience outfit. The elements of post-rock, of shoegaze and of more conventional indie have been brought together by a band with talent that evidently extends far beyond the realm of the crescendo. Neither typical nor expected, it is much to their credit that they have brought about change and innovation to create an album with unique (!) style, with resounding success. It’s one of those albums that goes about creating its own atmosphere whilst sucking you into its own ethereal world; a wholly absorbing and captivating experience, with several truly standout moments. The just-above-whisper, “You cannot dream your way out of here”, in ‘Dark, Dark my Light’; the breathtaking transition from the slowly merging ambience of the opener into the brilliantly asserted aerobatics of ‘Return to Us’; and the completely awe-inspiring fashion in which the album ends, taking leave of the listener by rushing and swirling its way out through the eardrums and heavenward. The mould has been broken; the result works magnificently.
Today I woke up early; I caught the sun in mid-rise. It was to ‘From this Vantage’ that I was compelled to listen. This album… it’s a bit special.
92%
The Ascent of Everest - From This Vantage
Reviewed by: Matthew Tsai (05/28/10)
The Ascent of Everest - From This Vantage
Record Label: Future Recordings
Release Date: June 1, 2010
The Ascent of Everest is one of the rare bands capable of evoking an authentic cinematic soundscape in their music. Many are quick to lump token acts like Yndi Halda or the notorious Explosions In the Sky into the same category of “epic,” but those bands make music that’s more in line with the common song, rather than an orchestral work. They’re big on structure, and cling to traditional rock instruments. With The Ascent of Everest, you get a sound that’s more timeless – it’s got less of a distinguishable formula, and is much more Howard Shore-y in quality.
On From This Vantage, the Nashville, Tennessee group continues the mission they began on the split with We All Inherit the Moon last year: to sever ties with post-rock. Though they’re probably most well known within the post-rock scene, this 8-track full length sees the distance between the band and the genre elongate, but with terrible beauty. “Return to Us” is the first sign of this, laying wailing, undecipherable vocals down on a lush bed of strings, fluttering guitars, and harmonic melody. It swoops around gracefully for a few minutes, and then accelerates through shrieking noise into a soft resolve.
“Safely Caged in Bone” takes cues from classical music when it layers saccharine violin notes over pulsing cellos. Later, choir vocals direct the song flow, notching another contrast with textbook post-rock. The same goes for “Sword and Shield,” which romps through two different motifs before finishing with a powerful angelic chorus. That’s one lesson from post-rock they didn’t completely ditch: climaxes are still super sweet. The vibraphone appearance on it is a spooky, delightful treat, too. But while “Every Fear” and “In and Through” combine seamlessly to make one massive, climax-ridden, cello extravaganza, the most mesmerizing track is probably still the five minute closer “From this Vantage.” Its arching strings and icy, teasing female staccatos practically make it fit to be the soundtrack to the birth of Christ.
Without patronizing post-rock, it’s hard not to agree with The Ascent of Everest’s direction. Instrumental music can be a breathtaking experience all by itself, but the human voice adds an extra dimension; it adds the element of humanity in all its flaws and imperfections, whether in sorrow, angst, or in this case, violent beauty. By choosing this route, The Ascent of Everest has produced something enduring, with a captivating quality rivaled by few. If From This Vantage isn’t music from eternity, it sure comes pretty close.
Recommended If You Like
We All Inherit the Moon, Beware of Safety, A Silver Mt. Zion
Update on Saturday, June 5, 2010 at 2:36PM by
devin
9/10
More breathtaking soundscapes from the Tennessee collective – post-rock pretenders, take note.
As anyone fortunate or canny enough to witness The Ascent of Everest’s symphonic post-rock in a live context can attest this Nashville eight-piece are something of a beautiful anomaly in the underground music world; producing delicate, sumptuously layered compositions that owe as much to the avant garde of classical music as to anything originating from the realms of rock, AOE weave their aural landscapes with a deft, elegiac grace that more often than not packs a real emotional punch.
‘From This Vantage’, the band’s second album, continues where its predecessor left off, deploying a range of unconventional instrumentation such as violin and cello to sidestep the typical constructional constraints of instrumental rock. Think of a more adventurous take on latter day Mono, or Jonny Greenwood collaborating with Sigur Ros... This is tremendously atmospheric, cinematic music that will probably beguile as many as it will charm. Interested readers are advised to listen through ‘From This Vantage’ from beginning to end, as these eight tracks together form an unmistakable journey, latter sections incorporating sparing bursts of heavy guitar to add an extra power to the album’s dizzying peaks and troughs. Ethereal vocals, unpredictable song structure; we can’t recommend that you check out The Ascent Of Everest enough if you’re after a challenging, intellectually and emotionally rewarding listen.
Rob Sayce
Brim full of complexities and ideas, it’s quite a record to get your head around.
Orchestral experimental rock outfit The Ascent Of Everest offer you a record so thick in textures it would leave food connoisseurs drooling at the mouth after their latest clogged artery blocks more blood to the heart. It’s a record which will certainly leave a lot of people by the side of the road, and make those sticking with it really pay for their art.
From This Vantage really becomes an album that you need to work at to unravel all of its underlying layers of complex musical structures and soundscapes encompassing ideas which are just too grand to fit into a few minutes. At times it is an effort that really begins to pay off as seen in the closing stanza of ‘Return To Us’ which builds into the overlapping ‘Dark, Dark My Soul’ where vocals add a piece of simplicity to proceedings, something which comes as a welcome break throughout the record.
When ‘Safety Caged In Bone’s cellos and marching drums begin to uncurl your fist, you can be forgiven in thinking that that the record is taking on a more approachable feel, but the haunting femme fatale vocals and dreamy violin transport you into a Yann Tiersen film soundtrack, haunting, gripping, and always just a little unsteady
But then again, at times it feels like an effort you could do without. Getting lost in a piece of music shouldn’t necessarily take such a concerted effort of both concentration and patience. Many of the harrowing tales begin to masquerade as tuneful simplicities of an amalgamation of instruments becoming one, but then the carpet is swiftly pulled out from under you and you no longer know which way is up.
If
From this Vantage became a simile, it would be like a rainbow: at times a beauty unbeknownst to man, showing a ray of hope after the storm, full off a multitude of complexities and colours, beginning upwards, full of hope and ideas, but ultimately fading away, and if you try to find out what it’s actually all about, you realise that it was never really there, and you don’t know what it was you just witnessed.
Bit of a headfuck eh?
The Ascent of Everest trampled over me in 2008 with their gorgeous debut album How Lonely Sits the City. It was infectious as hell and they were on the tips of everyone’s tongue. After debuting a few new tracks on a split with We All Inherit the Moon and reissuing How Lonely they’ve been fairly quiet. Four years later, From This Vantage is the beast all of us fans have been waiting for.
AOE have been written off as a rip off of Yndi Halda and A Silver Mt. Zion. In post-rock, you’re gonna see comparisons between every band out there but there’s a fine line between ripping off and being influenced. From This Vantage shows the group settling all of the arguments for good and trying to sever the ties with this genre.
I haven’t listened to these guys in forever but the first thing I noticed right off the bat was the amount of vocals in the songs. They’ve always featured singing but it’s only been here and there and only for a short while. Devin Lamp’s vocals are pleasant and they have a calming effect on the listener and they fit perfectly within the songs. They’re somewhere between wailing and singing and they’re complimented by lovely back up female vocals from cellist Casey Kaufman. “Return to Us” is the first example of all of this wailing. The undeciperable lyrics lay down next to luxuriant strings before it gives way to shrieking noise.
“Safely Caged In Bones” is almost a classical piece. Featuring violin over a throbbing cello before choir vocals come in to steer the song. “Sword and Shield” gives you two structures to work around before they bring it home with an epic angelic chorus. They haven’t completely forgotten their post-rock teachings but they’ve taken what they’ve learned and they’re proving to be a force to be reckoned with. “From This Vantage” ends the album and it’s the soundtrack of everything beautiful in this world being re-born. Just listen and you’ll see what I mean.
There’s a lot of distance between How Lonely and From This Vantage and it’s clear that’s what the band wanted. There are less memorable moments than their debut but that’s made up by replays on here. I’ve listened to it about 10 times and it gets better and better with every listen. They’re a band everybody should be paying attention to. They’ve made an enduring album with a timeless sound. They’ve risen above their peers and you can’t help but feel that’s what the point of this was. I highly recommend it and this is one of the few albums that’s landed on my plate that’s been equally challenging and beautiful. Get this now. I guarantee that you won’t be disappointed.
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