Spokes might have snappy moniker, but they’re less succinct in their song titles. This re-released six-tracker, originally self-rleleased on the band’s Everyone Label, includes in the track-listing ‘We Like to Dance and Steal Things,’ ‘Young People! All Together’ and ‘Sometimes Words Are Too Slow.’ But really, the titles are of little significance or consequence, because it really is all about the music. And I really do mean all about the music: there aren’t many vocals on here, and where there is singing, it’s more often than not secondary, incidental, and forms a much lesser part of a longer instrumental track.
And there are some very long instrumental tracks on here. Despite being an EP, its running time is longer than some albums. So what do they sound like? Well, it’s almost impossible to avoid the words ‘epic’ ‘crescendo’ and ‘post-rock,’ and extremely difficult to refrain from drawing comparisons to Explosions in the Sky. Too difficult, obviously, as I’ve just done all of the aforementioned. So I guess it comes down to whether or not one appreciates these things or not.
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For what it’s worth, although perhaps of a type, Spokes’ sprawling crescendo-laden epics are well executed and well thought out, with chiming (and occasionally soaring) guitars in abundance complemented by some solid rhythms, and the incorporation of a violin into their sound does without doubt set them apart from their post-rock peers.
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