Laymar - 'In Strange Lines And Distances' (TV) Rleased 30/06/08

Just when post-rock seemed knackered, stuck with its tried and tested, once fresh but by now hopelessly past their sell by date methods, a host of bands intent on ditching the rulebook and venturing beyond the genre’s trademark quiet/loud dynamics have emerged.

Across the Atlantic, Battles’ mind-blowing blend of chin-stroking muso acrobatics and dancefloor-bound exuberance and the herb-flavoured bursts of Led Zep’s muscular strut, Tinariwen’s sparse Saharan blues and Ash Ra Tempel’s axe-shredding inner space explorations provided by the sorely underappreciated Grails have kickstarted the stalled motors of (mostly) vocals-dodging noodling. This side of the pond, meanwhile, up-and-coming Leeds quintet Vessels have succeeded in blowing several years worth of cobwebs off the musty formula for atmospheric mood-building.

Laymar are the latest outfit to request permission to join the post-rock rejuvenation club, and the outstanding proceedings contained on ‘In Strange Lines and Distances’ – the Manchester trio’s first full-length offering - should ensure their application is approved without delay. Although a notch or two below the awe-inspiring aural assaults cooked up during the three-piece’s live sets (perhaps inevitably – for a band whose music relies on steadily escalating intensity levels rather than hooks, verses or choruses, an audience to bounce off on is a crucial ingredient), ‘In Strange Lines and Distances’ is pretty devastating fare, especially if you’re willing to give it a bit of time to reveal its habit-forming secrets.

Frequently, Laymar resemble a pumped-up take on Harmonia – equally capable of floating in the stratosphere as the German masters of hypnotic, melodically endowed repetition, but with added capabilities in economically dispersed stints of pedal-bashing oomph. Opener ‘Rec #4’ combines hyper-heavy riffage worthy of Om or Sunn0))) with frenzied free-jazz drumming, before turning into a majestic sludge groove with a melody that threatens to turn into cornball country classic ‘Ghost Riders In The Sky’. ‘NU1’ shares Vessels’ interest in subtle electronic enhancements with winningly melancholy outcomes, whilst ‘Circles and Squares’ offers a welcome moment of calm amidst the thunderous proceedings.

All of which is splendid stuff, but pales into insignificance next to the mammoth album closer ‘Swords’. In wrong hands, a 17-minute epic would be a recipe for nauseating fretwank of truly interminable proportions. Laymar, though, know how to grab and hold the listener’s attention, regardless of how many aeons it takes to transport the track to its conclusion. Switching seamlessly between minimalistic prettiness, Neanderthalian noise-mongering, dubstep-hued subterranean bass escapades and a graceful coda that glitters like the first rays of sun after a particularly nasty storm, ‘Swords’ sounds totally unique and absolutely spellbinding. The same can be said for most of the rest of ‘In Strange Lines and Distances’.