Koe : Stem the Tide

<img src="http://www.qromag.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/koestemthetide.jpg" alt=" " />The multi-national Koe draw from a wide array of strains in post-rock on their debut LP, <em>Stem the Tide</em>....
7.2 Sacred Cow
2008 

 The multi-national Koe draw from a wide array of strains in post-rock on their debut LP, Stem the Tide. Based in London but including members from Slovenia and France, it isn’t surprising that the three-piece doesn’t stick to one method of post-rock.  And while some ways are certainly better than others on Stem the Tide, Koe delivers.

Unfortunately, Tide opens on maybe its weakest track, “Song2”.  A bit simplistic, more rock-grind than post-rock, “Song2” points out that Koe’s weaker side is their harder side.  The following “Nineflower” is definitely more meaningful, but still loses itself in the grind at times.  The other instances where the band returns to this bass-heavy rock are better, but middle track “Kruh” is too intricate, later piece “Test transmission” is a confused chop-attack, with only the preceding “Leech” getting better with rhythm.

Thankfully, Koe spends more time in the higher altitudes of post-rock, and this is where they really flourish.  It starts with “Quan”, an ominous glide that is best when it explodes.  That is followed up by the even better “SlapghOst”, which is more atmospheric in its haunts, and possesses a distorted radio voice in the distance.  Other times, Tide goes even more removed, like the softer haunted house “testo”, or the growing far static “Iloveyouverymuch”.  But the pinnacle has to be the prior “Waiver”, whose flow and glide has just the right level of post-rock touch, and goes wonderfully into the expanse.

Stem the Tide finishes with the epic, eleven-plus-minute “Tire pas…”, which tells a whole story without words, a whole life.  Koe might do some things better than others, which can be frustrating at times, but there’s nothing Stemming their Tide as they are carried along the waves of post-rock.

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