So, Bring On Mixed Reviews

Post Harbor – They Can’t Hurt You If You Don’t Believe In Them – Review

Release Date: February 16th, 2010
Record Label: Burning Buildings Records
Genre: Experimental Rock

Some say that subtraction of something can lead to additional gains. If you look at the Venus Demilo, having no head or arms, yet still being priceless because of the notable difference, you start to see why people may think that way. Such is my metaphor for Post Harbor and the sparsity of vocals — all the while demonstrating an amazing and euphoric assortment of stand-alone sonic-rock. Sure there are lyrics spoken that come in and out, most of the time with added effects, but the majority of their latest full-length “They Can’t Hurt You If You Don’t Believe In Them” is a spotlight for their beautiful and building instrumentation.

It’s not every day that you can start listening to an album and feel like you are floating away in its reverberation, in its sonic masterpiece. Short radio songs these are not, with tracks averaging 5 minutes long and the more regal ones landing an ample 6+. This gives Post Harbor a generous amount of time to shape their spacial, almost psychotropic, sound. Everything is also taken as a snails pace, almost like in a waking dream, where a vibrant array of noise and colors converge and expand on your horizon, all done with patience and calm in mind. It’s almost impossible to attempt describing ” They Can’t Hurt You If You Don’t Believe In Them” as a series of sounds, because they all tell a unique story and are more in depth than simple notes on sheet paper. Instrumentation makes what it is. Violins speak tales of sorrow emerging from “Alia’s Fane” while rushing walls of sound, sonic guitars, and steady-paced drums, shape the growing and equally interesting track, “Shirakashi.”

Vocals or not, Post Harbor has smoothed together some of the more endearing experimental rock albums this year. Not singularly because of the addition of addictive effects or a mellow disposition, but because of how well an ethereal story teller they are — even without words. And when they do choose to speak more than a haiku’s worth of lyrics, as they do in “Caves, Hollow Trees And Other Dwellings,” nothing about their majestic atmosphere changes — as it is simply another colorful brush-stroke to this splendid painting. Even the ironically titled “Intro” which stands as the records outro, is filled with echoed pianos, tweeting birds, and a sense of calm that doesn’t leave the listen, even after the effort has finished.

Some people taken themselves so seriously. Starting conflicts and instigating destruction, but only a few know how to create a wonderful collection of  songs that seek only to form ambiguously ambitious thoughts with the help from plucks of wavy guitars, spacial phasing effects, and engaging audio songwriting.  Post Harbor has done just that, and in doing so has made “They Can’t Hurt You If You Don’t Believe In Them” one of top experimental favorites since Thrice‘s “Vheissu.” ~Staff

Score: 5/5

Track Listing:
1. Ponaturi
2. Cities of the Interior
3. Shirakashi
4. With a Line Graph I Can Tell the Future
5. The End of Something Great Is Coming
6. Alia’s Fane
7. Augustine
8. Caves, Hollow Trees and Other Dwellings
9. For Example, This Is a Corpse
10. Intro