Falcon Arrow Return With More Cosmic Post-Rock on ‘Occurrens’
Falcon Arrow are a band that work from a fairly simple template. Consisting of just bass (Matt Reints) and drums (Dav Kemp), the band explore post-rock with as few moving parts as possible. Dating back to the closing years of the ‘aughts, the band have continued to explore the maximalist side of minimalism, creating a body of work that is both immediately gratifying but also allows for further discoveries upon multiple listens.
Their latest effort, the seven-song LP Occurrens, builds on their previous work. The songs are muscular, expansive and propulsive, riding chugging grooves with spacey melodies that find looped bass parts that are very much larger than the sum of their parts. Like all good post-rock, the songs give the distinct impression that they would be a perfect fit for a movie soundtrack, whether the feeling of taking flight that happens on “Amateur Outlaws” or the crashing towards the finish line of “XFBP,” the songs paint vivid pictures while giving you enough space to craft your own story.
You’d think that it would be easy to tire of the Falcon Arrow’s sound after all of these years, but that isn’t the case at all. Occurrens finds new minerals in an old mine, creating an album that I’ve spent countless hours with as winter turned to spring this year. It is an album that feels hopeful and without borders, allowing me more than a few moments of escape as the brutal second half of winter collapsed down on us here in Minnesota in wave after wave. If you’re looking for a soundtrack for your next mental vacation (or if you’re making a movie about space adventure) give Occurrens a try. You won’t be disappointed.
Writer / co-founder
