An electrical storm crisscrosses a bluepurple sky. There is a crackling in the air, air that smells like summer in the Midwest right before a rainfall. Then the power fails and a gorgeous yet frightening storm kicks wind and dust and fallen leaves about. You run for cover yet the raindrops falling hard on your naked chest feel good and remind you that you are alive. God seems near. The power and the beauty of it all comes crashing down upon you like a lead weight but instead of crushing you, the force buoys you to the top of a wave, which crests, carries you, exalts you and frees you. Then, almost as suddenly, the storm has passed, somehow dropping you safely right back in the familiar territory of your own backyard. It is still wet and warm. And the air smells cleaner and sweeter than fresh mown hay. You lay on your back atop the shimmering wet dark green grass that is your backyard and look up to the beautiful gray clouds that fly above at an enormous pace, like smoke drifting. You place your hands behind your head still looking skyward wide-eyed. And you dream. You are alive.

This is what it’s like to listen to Explosions in the Sky.

Formed only a little over a year ago, Explosions is a four-piece rock unit of incredible beauty and intensity. Their instrumental pieces reverberate around the Austin scene like the soundtrack of urban existence. Filmmakers call upon them to score visuals. Other bands approach them to work on their pieces. In just over a year, they have taken Austin by storm and made it their home.

This is a young band and often it shows. Their oldest member is 27, the youngest just 21. Their youth brings intensity and vibrancy as often as it brings chance and pretension. Their musicianship often supersedes their age. But it is their youth and their freshness that also gives them that spark. Audiences realize that when listening to Explosions, just about anything can happen. Say’s the band’s website, “We first play(ed) together in April 1999. Something seemed clear and right from the first night.” That cohesion has not faded and more often than not Explosions in the Sky take listeners on magical flights of musical fancy. But their youth often seems close to spilling us from the magic carpet. It is often only pluck and untamed talent that saves us (and them) from falling.

With Explosions in the Sky, the listener must know that rules will be broken. Sweet and beautiful moments can erupt in violent and frightening and loud outbursts with absolutely no warning. And then, just as quickly and again without any notice to signify the impending quiet, calm and order will be restored to the audio textures. Explosions in the Sky are fireworks, their name is apt. The pyrotechnics explode leaving a beautiful and colorful and awe-inspiring aftermath, a tracer that curls and weeps and wraps us in it’s arms.

The band, according to their website at www.explosionsinthesky.com is made up of a drummer (Chris Hraski), a bassist (Michael James), and two guitarists (Munaf Rayani and Mark Smith). All of the members come from Midland, Texas except Hrasky, who hails from Illinois. But surely it is a small town upbringing which has reared the musicians that explore an outsider’s POV with sound. Without seeming classically trained or without having any real insight to urban artistic or cultural movements, Explosions are youth culture influenced musicians who have somehow managed to filter their verve through incredible craft. Perhaps it is the mindless boredom of small town existence that has allowed them the spare time to practice and become such talented musicians. If this is true, then it is obvious also that much of that “spare” time was also spent listening to Metallica and other 90’s rock. You can easily hear this on Explosions’ records.

Much divergent sound comes from these four guys (hence the wavering feelings of the band in this review) yet they mold it into a cohesive whole. The guitars can often be as akin to Joe Satriani or Steve Vai as they can be to Robert Fripp or Bill Nelson. The drums waver from militaristic repetitions to intricate and complex time signatures that would make Neil Peart weep. And the rhythm section never fails to take us, the listener, the passive rider, on glorious trips. Sometimes, in darkened passages, we are not sure where we are headed, but eventually we grow to trust Hraski and James. Their skill may take us to unexpected places but rarely do we dislike the experience. Even if it takes us repeated listens to grow comfortable with the trip.

I first heard of Explosions in the Sky when a friend gave me a copy of their first CD. A simple CDR with nothing other than the name of the band scribbled on the shiny disc. The name intrigued me. The music astounded me. Soon thereafter, I saw Kat Candler’s amazing film “cicadas” and heard the remarkable music of the band again as it accented the film and drove home the themes of teen isolation, angst and trepidation. “cicadas” opened my eyes to the true nature of the band: Explosions in the Sky are cinematic. Their songs create visuals in your head. Explosions were as necessary to “cicadas” as the actors, the writer or the images. Their mood perfectly enhanced the feel of the film, taking it over the edge into the valley of deep emotion.

Says Candler about the impetus of using the band, “I went to go see Explosions at Emo's a long time ago. I think it might have been one of their first shows. They were absolutely amazing, the kind of music that makes you weep. I begged Chris for a CD after that. I had already been through two composers at that point. I synched up some of their songs to the picture and asked if I could use them. After that I asked if they’d score the rest of the film. They came up with the most beautiful stuff.”

Recently, a friend of the band gave me an early copy of their second CD, which won’t be released for a few weeks. This friend is flaky, of course, and gives me nothing to go by except the burned CDR, simply a purple case to hold it and nothing more. I don’t know the name of the forthcoming CD. An article in the Austin Chronicle calls it “Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live Forever.” The band’s website indicates that they have signed to a label called Temporary Residence. The band seems ready to do a tour to support the new album in early summer.

I don’t know the name of the six songs that make up this new CD’s contents. I only know it is amazing and perplexing listening. With the six new tracks, the shortest of which is six minutes, the longest of which is twice that amount of time, the band continues on it’s journey of musical exploration. This time the grasp relaxes to be a bit more experimental; the band becomes a bit more trusting of their audience to be able follow them, to ride the ride. Occasionally, these songs fail us slightly, or seem to, only because our lexicon of modern instrumental music has conditioned us to expect formula, expect typicality. Often the band makes it seem impossible to see the forest for the trees, to see the songs for the over-complicated and somewhat pretentious musicianship. But like the best of records, repeat plays never fail to involve the listener, accentuate the intensity and beauty of the music and bring out it’s underlying cohesiveness.

The band is young. Often it falls to the formula of slow intro/bombastic counterpart/calming and relaxing outro. Explosions in the Sky is not ambient music, that’s for sure. And often this disengages the listener, especially on early plays. One is often unable to relax and enjoy the soundscape being created because the band seems to insist on inserting a punctuated and coarse interlude into the middle of an otherwise ambient song. For fans of the genre, and I am a fan of “real” (old school) ambient, like Eno and Fripp, this can be quite frustrating at first. But, as I’ve said, the band is not made up of ambient musicians. That is not what they are going for. And although their often crass and blaring moments can seem a symptom of their youth and a deep desire to appear technically adept as musicians, it also becomes their signature. When we come to expect this type of song from Explosions, it becomes far easier to grasp the new CD. And appreciate it for it’s immense beauty.

The first track opens with a slow build to the outburst. The visual experiences in the mind while listening to the track again recalls the band’s ability to takes us into a storm and deliver us to the other side of it, chronologically, safely. A short Metallica-esque interlude only serves to intensify the beauty of it’s following consequences.

Track two follows the same sort of feeling. A moment of brutal cacophony in the opening minutes of the song again leads us into the calm after the storm. This is the Explosions formula. The songs, part of song cycle, often climb mountains, coast into valleys and swirl down streams. When these songs divert into tributaries often dark, inharmonious and treacherous, we sometimes lose our way. But, almost inevitably, the whirlwind drops us back into the comfort of a soft bed of grass. Never do we give up. We always find our way home and Explosions always feather our landing.

The experimental nature of the band’s work may cause the listener to question track three initially. Back on the wave of angst so prevalent in their music, Explosions take us on a rollercoaster ride where high flights of exhilaration plunge into the depths of excited particles only to be followed by a lull which finally allows us to catch our breath. But far too often these large and loud compositions here become much too jumbled on initial listenings to the point of near incoherence. They sometimes seem to come apart at the seams. For every moment of intense excitement, there is a moment of intense confusion. Or, at least, this is how we first feel.

At 10 minutes, this is the second longest song on the CD. Initial trepidation melts away upon repeated plays as the listener learns to accept the music, to incorporate it into their mindset. To ride the ride. It is quite possibly the best song Explosions have ever made. (Listen man, really listen – you will get goosebumps!) It is somehow innate within us to passively listen to instrumental music, to allow it to become background. Explosions in the Sky refuse to fall victim to that expectation.

Track four returns to the seeming inspiration of Robert Fripp and King Crimson. The song begins eerily with a subtle yet intense spoken passage over quiet music. The words seem like they might have come from a letter written by a Civil War soldier. Then again, perhaps it is from a book by Robert Heinlein. The song slowly evolves into a Frippertronic guitar interlude that is soon coupled with a bass and drum rhythm that has us expecting Adrian Belew to be heard singing at any moment. It is beautiful. The drums in the piece are recorded beautifully, loud and clear, recalling Gus Dudgeon’s work with Nigel Olsson’s kit on the 70’s Elton John records. (Dudgeon never got much credit for his awesome work with the sound of drums – a sure precursor to Phil Collins 80’s drum sound – taking a backseat to the Elton phenom). As the song evolves, yet again the band feels compelled to become complex, to not allow any piece they create to be mired in simplicity – to become ambient. They are, perhaps, trying, like young men, to express so much so quickly, that they cannot contain themselves. The piece builds to a fiery and passionate and jangled conclusion that, finally, drops us into waves of Frippertronic echoes as we steal into the night sky…

This song segues directly and seamlessly into track five tracks, which begins with a militaristic drumbeat that does not allow us to relax. Explosions does not try to lull the listener into submissive passivity. Their jangled interludes and angst-ridden licks drive us to attention. The band reminds one of King Crimson again here – (perhaps with drums by Rick Buckler of The Jam) and the song expresses war in the percussive cadence and musical outbursts. This is not “easy” listening. Again, the band insists on taking us far too high, far too quickly. We are dizzied by the ascent.

The final track arrives and we feel something evil afoot. Here the driving guitars come back to seemingly lead the drums as is more prevalent in their work. But the off-kilter musical breaks, the detours the band insists on taking again, jangle us. While this new record from Explosions in the Sky continues their momentum of expressing angst and anger and the beauty of altercation and alienation, it seems far more inharmonious than we expect from them. Then again, perhaps this is an adult’s complaint. In reality, it is youthful frenetics that drive this band. There is also a feeling that Explosions somehow think they need to impress us. Perhaps, like all young musicians, given a chance to perform for an appreciative crowd, the band has spread its wings, followed it’s own course, and left a few too many of us behind. While soaring, they might often look down at us, still Earthbound, with out hands shading our eyes from the sun as we try to locate them and join in the aural aerobatics. At times, sky-high, they become Icarus, destine to fall.

These new songs are more structured and yet more loose then before. Still, Explosions music has always seemed to be, first and foremost, for the members of the band. We are only passengers while they pilot the plane. The destination is far less important than the journey itself.

There is something that makes one think this band will become perfect with age and maturity. And there is something else that makes one hope the band never allows itself to age, to evolve, to reach a logical conclusion. There is a dark storm in the center of Explosions in the Sky and it contains an intensity and a passion that cordons off the band from everyone else out there. Somehow we don’t want them to lose that intensity. It is the fuse that ignites.

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