*Note: There are two versions of Enjoy Eternal Bliss; one is the demo, with only three tracks, and the other is the 'EP', with four tracks (the version reviewed here). I use 2007 as the release date, because that was when the EP was released in stores.*
If there was one thing I had to say draws me most to the post-rock genre, it has to be the ability of amazing bands to elicit an emotional response from the listener. At the genre's base is a fairly well maintained formula: long tracks, epic crescendos building off beds of ambience, songs that feel more like movements an orchestra would play rather than songs on an album. Post-rock really rose to fame with the likes of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Explosions in the Sky, Mogwai, Sigur Ros, Do Make Say Think, and others; any album that labels itself post-rock bears the weight of being compared to the genre's heaviest hitters and their best albums, perhaps unfairly, but deservedly. However, every once in a while, an album comes around that, be it immediately or gradually, surpasses all criticisms of being 'just another (fill in your choice of band here) ripoff' and takes its rightful place among the 'Hall of Fame' members.
Yndi Halda is a five-piece from Canterbury, United Kingdom, and their debut 'Enjoy Eternal Bliss' is one of these albums. 4 tracks, none less than eleven and a half minutes long, of simply some of the most beautiful post-rock I've heard in some time. Yes, the 'post-rock formula' is evident on the album, but it is used as more of a stone upon which Yndi Halda build a strong cathedral of sound, rather than just another making another cookie-cutter house that, while it may look pretty, eventually succumbs to time and the elements and crumbles upon itself. 'Dash and Blast' opens the album by building from a slow ambient bed to reach its peak; then, instead of slowly devolving the sound to end the track, they keep the pace and feeling almost all the way to the end. On the track 'We Flood Empty Lakes', we are instantly greeted with the theme, and as the track progresses, each instrument spins, revolves, and resolves its own path around that theme. This practice is repeated two more times, but progressively more slowly, feeding the desperate intensity of the song. The third track, 'A Song for Starlit Beaches', was not included on the original release of the EP, but was included when the band released it as a full length. That doesn't mean the track is in any way unworthy of being on the album. The ebb-and-flow sounds of this track show the musical maturity of the band, and when the track peaks (several times), it is simply beautiful. The violin theme about halfway through could play at a funeral, and yet, a few minutes later when the sound peaks again, it is as hopeful a sound as one can find in instrumental music. 'Illuminate My Heart, My Darling' finishes off the album superbly. Listening to it, I could do nothing but close my eyes as the sounds brought back memories and gave me goosebumps.
'Enjoy Eternal Bliss' is not something to just listen to randomly, in pieces, but all at once, in one go, to get the full feeling behind the album. While this (and the length of the tracks) may deter more casual listeners, those who stay for the whole thing are greatly rewarded.
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