Year of no Light...

Today’s update comes from a band based out of Bordeaux, France called Year of no Light who after releasing a well-received demo have just recently released their first proper album Nord through Radar Swarm Records (E-Vinyl & Atropine for the vinyl). I have steadily been becoming more and more of a fan of the material that Radar Swarm has been putting out with releases from Cortez, Tantrum, and now Year of no Light.

For me, post-rock is a genre that is very hit or miss. I find a band to be either really boring or they can travel all the way to the other end of the spectrum and absolutely blow me away. On Nord, Year of no Light have pretty much floored me with something that breathes a bit of new life into a genre that has suffered from the effects of over saturation. The band treads a fine line between complete dense apocalyptic rock and the shimmering beauty of acts like Mono. Some of the songs on Nord stretch out into the 8 minute mark, however one of the more compelling features of the band is on some of the shorter/faster paced songs that bring to mind the likes of Old Man Gloom, showing a more ferocious and different side of the band. The vocals especially remind me of OMG, very distorted and hidden beneath the layers of guitars. Although the lyrics are entirely in French, that shouldn’t be any sort of issue as they are sang in an indecipherable screaming method anyway.

It’s good to hear something like this finally. Year of no Light have done a masterful job of piecing together elements of chilled drone, sludge, and post-rock to create something that is far more interesting than a lot of their counterparts. The album Nord has given me good enough reason to continue checking out music of this type and hopefully this isn’t the last we hear of this band as they display an obscene amount of talent for future releases.

Year of no Light – Sélénite [MP3]
Year of no Light - Par Economie Pendant La Crise [MP3]

If you like what you hear, go check out Radar Swarms website for ordering methods. While you are there also check out mp3’s of some of the other bands on the label through their bio pages. There is some good stuff on there.