Efterklang

"Efterklang," translated from Danish, means "after the noise," and while this collective of six musicians (there are 30 on the CD) revel in lush melodies, they are not beyond a bit of theatrical sound design/noise. The heritage of this music is evident in its debt to Sigur Rós and Godspeed You! Black Emperor, all the way back to King Crimson and the Beach Boys, but they mark their trail quickly with dense, beautiful orchestrations and mass choirs of voices standing in contrast to clanking banjos and moments of stillness. This formal compositional approach points out the band's roots in European culture, more specifically the art of composition developed in Western classical music. While sometimes the music gets lost in prog-like complexity, or at least an excess of earnestness, Parades proves to be an intensely musical work, and one of the best examples of the sophistication of the "post-rock" era.