April Rain – One Is Glad To Be Of Service

LISTEN

Track List

1. Walking With Zeus` Wife
2. Deadman On Vacation
3. Last Cry Of A Whale Cast Ashore
4. You Are Playing On A Golden String
5. Happiness Is When You Can Return
6. Majdanek Of Mine
7. A Sailor Without The Sea
8. One Is Glad To Be Of Service (in memory of Robin Williams)

April Rain - One Is Glad To Be Of Service

The 85th release of Fluttery Records is a reissue of April Rain's One Is Glad To Be Of Service.

April Rain began in 2012 as a one-man band in Krasnodon, Ukraine and its first tunes were composed under the influence of Sigur Ros. In 2013, the first album “Waiting For Sunrise” was released. At that time, April Rain was still a one-man band. In 2014, however, the group went through major changes and three more musicians became its vital part, playing on various gigs in Lugansk. Due to the civil war in Ukraine, Valeriy, one of the band members moved to Russia, where the group’s second album and “Songs For Someone” EP were recorded and released. At this time April Rain is 4-piece band situated in Saint-Petersburg. Music of April Rain is pain converted to sounds.

To pursue a horizon that is forever receding, that is the destiny of every human being. What unites humanity as a species is not the way we look, think, or act, but it’s simply the fact that we experience a continuous pain, a sexual drive that leads us to want more. With One Is Glad To Be Of Service, April Rain comprehends this universal pain; a pain that lies within us, which we find in nature and which makes us feel a yearning that unites us all in our humanity.

One Is Glad To Be Of Service is a conscious record. It draws from the depths of human experience; ancient history, contemporary culture, natural phenomena, and mathematics. It finds the human condition to be glorious and sad at the same time. It offers melancholia, without losing touch with that one spark of hope that is the future.

April Rain continuously contemplates the human condition and switches back and forth in a metamodern oscillation between acceptance and rejection. One Is Glad To Be Of Service shows April Rain to be a perfect children of this age. In combining the atmosphere of Mono with the lively energy of Tides From Nebula, he gratefully tips his hat to great instrumental rock acts, yet April Rain constitutes more than the sum of its influences. With One Is Glad To Be Of Service, April Rain feels the heart of our times, and it aches, badly.

FLTTRY085
Release Date:  September 12, 2015
© Fluttery Records

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April Rain – Leave Me No Light

LISTEN

Track List

1. I See You When I Look At The Stars
2. Queue Up For Infinity
3. Teach Me To Fly Don't Teach Me To Land
4. Violent Passion Surrogate
5. Leave Me No Light
6. Terry Fox Will Run Forever
7. On My Way To You
8. I'm All Crying Inside
9. 2live4

April Rain - Leave Me No Light

April Rain is indeed post-rock in the purest tradition of the genre; melodic and spaced-out guitars, bass sometimes on its own, the bringing together of a furious medley of guitars and drums. As other instrumental bands will do, they choose to use strong poetic song titles similar to those of Explosions in the Sky or Mogwai. Terry Fox Will Run Forever or Teach Me to Fly Don’t Teach Me To Land evoke so much by their titles alone that we kind of get into the song before we’ve started listening. When our attention is on an album, we find ourselves trying to find connections between the music and the song title; sometimes, the connection seems crystal clear, and sometimes we are totally confused!

Even if April Rain don’t distance themselves from traditional post-rock structures with the songs building and building in intensity a bunch of times, they nonetheless manage to bring this proven formula to a new level. All the instruments have their special moments when they build this intensity and when they finally play all together, the energy and intensity that emerges is immediately palpable. Sometimes, furious tribal tom-tom drumming hits you right in the face and a cinematic, guitar-driven loud explosion of sound destroys you like in Queue Up for Infinity. Sometimes, the building is a very slow, careful process and emotionally charged, like in I’m All Crying Inside. The guys in April Rain know how to compose a song, and that reflects in every different angle they take.

By the end of the album, the impression I had on it at the very beginning was confirmed. This is, along with Spurv’s Skarntyde, the best instrumental rock album of the year and one of the best albums of 2015. Some moments are better than others, (Violent Passion Surrogate or Terry Fox Will Run Forever are two big highlights) but there is a remarkable coherence in the effort, talent, energy and emotion through the entire album. If you’re one of those people claiming that post-rock is dead or lacks originality, this is one album to prove you wrong.

FLTTRY100
Release Date: February 20, 2016
© Fluttery Records

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