The Smashing Skull Sessions

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Living with Giants – This Place Is Not A Home

Wednesday, May 25th, 2022 at 5:00 AM by Pat O' #rock #review #psychedelic #post-rock #post-metal #post rock #podcast #musicreviews #musicreview #music

"The Moment We Escaped opens with a single string that echoes and resonates, suspended in the air by the singular drum beat that leads the track into a flourish of warm summer riffs and breezy percussions. It’s a hopeful track, full of restful ambiances and textures"

Does the band name sound familiar to you? Yes, it is a very post-rock name I know! but you have definitely heard it before, and more importantly, heard their music. After an eight-year long hiatus, Living With Giants have returned to being an active recording band. Now only a two-man venture, both Ryan Mannie and Carver Simmons have decided to breathe new life into the band following their 2011 album The World Is Held By A Taut String. The Sacramento duo have wasted no time in finding their feet and have hit the ground running with their return album This Place Is Not A Home. Here’s a few words about it!

The opening track, introduction, is exactly that, an intro that samples and sounds all that you’re about to experience on this album. It’s a small synthesised piece, but there is an anticipation and a rich warm embrace buried beneath the soundscape that welcomes you into their domain and gracefully opens the door to the second track , The Part Where… This track is flooded with crisp guitar tones and post rock radiance, all the time carried along by galloping percussions, that momentarily pause, before erupting once more into a voyage of guitar swells that bow and arc through different and often irregular notes, reaching fever pitch, but never hitting that post music crescendo you might have expected. Instead, the music waves retreat and recede for now.

The Moment We Escaped opens with a single string that echoes and resonates, suspended in the air by the singular drum beat that leads the track into a flourish of warm summer riffs and breezy percussions. It’s a hopeful track, full of restful ambiances and textures. Drum rolls and crashing cymbals produce this air of expanse and intimacy, and it all feels warm and welcoming. What’s really nice about it is the fact that there’s no rush here, once you’re in that moment, you can stay a while and soak it all up. When the track does eventually change pace, the build is patient and that crescendo finally emerges, filling the sky with bursts of colour, the explode into a downpour of positivity.

The following two tracks, A Yearlong Departure and Wander continue this gorgeous post rock adventure, with boundless moments of uplifting highs and quieter, more thought-provoking lows. This album never really releases you from its embrace at any stage throughout its path. It keeps the listener close and comfortable. There is nothing overly unique about This Place Is Not A Home, but it really is a beautiful piece of positive and uplifting post rock, that will always find a home with listeners that delve into this genre for its sometimes heart-breaking, but always positive and emotive highs.

Living with Giants are back, and they have most certainly retained the seat they vacated almost eight years ago. Be sure to check out the single The Moment We Escaped, and mark in your online calendars 27th May 2022, when the album will be available in full.