Fly Pan Am - N'écoutez pas (Constellation, 2004)

Autant Zig-Zag FTW. This track, and this album, inspired me to change course in 2004, and sent me into much deeper waters. Start at this track to get a feel for the record, but listen to the whole thing in awe. When I first heard this, way back in my days when I had a hundred or so followers on my journals on last.fm, I said that this is what I liked about post-rock. This comment diverted into a discussion about the genre. I think the intervening years have solidified the post-'Infinity' GY!BE sound (and Mogwai, actually) as what people think when they hear the term "post-rock." For the record, "experimental rock" could be a genre, albeit a completely vague and ineffectual one. I like to refer to these bands as post-rock because of their lineage (the GY!BE connections), the location (hotbed for the music), the label, and also because I think the idea behind the term post-rock should be what you think of when you use it. Before it solidified as it has, it generally could mean anything, from the musique concrete and French rock here, to jazzy Tortoise, to an instrumental band clashing against ambient music. In short, it was whatever stuff you grew to like out of your initial, more conventional, rock instrumentation. Nothing more or less. I stand by that, and maybe that little bit will guide your listening.