This Will Destroy You/Lymbyc Systym: Field Studies

What does bad post-rock sound like? For every other genre, there is a Yin and a Yang; a hero and a villain, a Skywalker and an Emperor, a Nolan and a Boll. Yet for this genre there seems to be no point of reference.

Yes, there is probably a band when strike the drum kit with all the accuracy and timing of a quadriplegic lemur on Xanax; play their guitars with the dexterity of a man wearing oven-gloves. Yet, assuming the band are technically competent, what separates the inspired from the Hiltons?

Field Studies offers few clues in this quandary. All that is certain is what feelings and emotions it evokes. During its twenty-six minutes, this split E.P could easily be described as 'pretty'. It could be described as a lot of things really. As such we're going to present all the usual adjectives used in post-rock reviews beforehand and you can select your own when you come to a [        ] style spacer. Interactive reviewing, it's going to be a thing.

Your adjective selections are: Surging, ethereal, haunting, pounding, warmer, shimmering, bellowing.

This Will Destroy You begin the E.P like any self-respecting post-rock would: with [        ] slithers of [        ] effects fronting the [        ] cavalcades of percussion. Serving as a precursor, the [        ] first act quickly burns itself out into a [        ] ambient passage, resonating like a ghostly wind blasting the darkest recesses of deserted woodland. The requisite slow-build to a [        ] crescendo is then the order of the day. However, in a nice spin on tradition, TWDY do side-step the theory of escalation until breaking point. Instead, they keep their instruments under control, with the build-up embodying a [        ], relaxed and slowly dissipating take on the formula. All of this in only eleven minutes as well! With that, their main contribution to the E.P dismisses itself as "Brutalism and the Worship of the Machine" segues into "Freedom Blade".

At a third the length of their previous contribution, TWDY's second (and final) track entry into Field Studies struggles with its brevity. Ripping a melody straight from the Explosions in the Sky handbook the Texans never really develop any of the ideas presented. Preferring instead to simply repeat them with an increasing arrangement of instruments.

Lymbyc Systym, by contrast, offer a much more visceral take on the genre. They park their wagon somewhere between Explosions... and 65daysofstatic without sounding particularly like either. On "Notations" they lean toward the latter, showboating their remarkable mastery of sound manipulation as the mid-point of the track plays host to modulated threads of effects weaving in an out of the grand tapestry.

Placing these two bands together serves to do few favours for This Will Destroy You. The final effect of the E.P paints the better known of the two as the meandering, long-winded, somewhat geriatric parent. The antithesis to Lymbyc Systym's eager, snapping, vivacious young teenager. Lymbyc Systym realise that the qualities of brutality and elegance are not mutually exclusive and can, in fact, co-exist peacefully. They also capitalise on a broader instrument base, putting (what we assume to be) an oboe hard to work during their final performance ("Narita" - a song bound to annoy any who enjoy the record on their computer whilst running uTorrent).

They are a duo unafraid to derail hard-won melodies with a-rhythmic percussion, sending tracks spiraling into strange and wonderful free-falls. In short, they may be the upstarts of the piece, but they are the ones who leave the indelible impression after Field Studies reaches its conclusion.