Records of the Week

THE SEVEN MILE JOURNEY OFFICIAL SITE

The Seven Mile Journey, a Danish quartet, has been procuring long-form post-rock for a decade and a few years, with their latest effort – and arguably most cohesive and polished to-date – seeing a March 12th release on the new post-rock imprint Fluttery Records. Known for tracks which in and of themselves create individual sonic seven-mile journeys, The Seven Mile Journey exude an aesthetic laden with contemplative gloom and the intelligent sparseness of storytelling, passed through a post-rock filter of repetition and crescendo. Topping their previously lengthiest track (“Passenger’s Log, The Unity Fractions” from 2006′s The Journal Studies, length 15:28) with introduction “Departures” and opener “The Alter Ego Autopsies”, the listener knows immediately that the group has honed, focused, and sharpened its musical vision, as attention is never lost over those first 22 minutes. Reserve and restraint are evident and well-used, particularly by percussive elements in “Simplicity Has a Paradox” and the opening of closer “The Etiology Diaries,” below its darkly shimmering ambiance. In successfully avoiding spectacle and excessive musical speculation, The Seven Mile Journey have crafted an hour of post-rock which asks questions of its listeners, yet yields few answers.