Krobak – The Diary of the Missed One

February 14, 2008 • Cardiowave

I'm pretty sure that I'm officially tired of post-rock now. I picked up The Diary of the Missed One back when I couldn't get enough of it, and I didn't even care for it then; now I am finding it difficult to review because I simply don't want to listen to it. It reminds me of dozens of other amateur-sounding post-rock albums made by people who must have decided—wrongly, of course—that it's easy music to make. But Krobak's music is dull and unchallenging and I simply don't find it interesting.

It's not all bad, to be sure; the guitars are exploited to get some pretty neat feedback and other effects, and there is some nice atmospheric noise here and there. The progression of each track and buildup is pretty decent, mostly done through guitar layering, although the acutal songwriting itself is a bit dull. Each track is about one or two riffs each, repeated ad nauseum, and while I suppose that is a comment ingredient in post-rock and the buildup helps build a consistent atmosphere and mood, it doesn't always click with me. It's very easy to get distracted as the music rarely grabs your attention with anything interesting.

One of the other big turn-offs for me about this album is that it has a very amateur sound, mostly due to the obviously synthesized bass and drums. The bass isn't as noticeable but the drums use a very basic kit (I think I recognize some of the sounds from my own early work, too), which ruins the atmosphere in a lot of places. This is especially jarring when the drums will randomly throw in a couple cymbal crashes—often in the middle of a measure—for no apparent reason. They also try to be more intense than the guitar lines which sometimes creates a bad contrast of moods, only really working well at the end of "By the Music of Autumn Trees".

My advice to Krobak: Get a real band with a real drummer and work on your songwriting, because on your own it doesn't work. I suppose The Diary of the Missed One could be appealing to a small niche of hardcore amateur-post-rock fans but I'm no longer one of them. Maybe that's because of albums like this.

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