Hex V2

The recent release of Jeanette Leech’s book ‘Fearless: The Making Of Post-Rock’ (Jawbone Press) celebrates post-rock and its origins. Finding new inspiration, bands were beginning to experiment with techniques as the digital age took over. A case study in her new book, Bark Psychosis were one of the most innovative bands of their time and as legend has it, saw the first use of the term ‘post-rock’ by music critic Simon Reynolds. Following several singles and EPs, the avant-garde soundscapes built around drones and samples of 21-minute stand-out track ‘Scum’ arrived just two years before their seminal debut ‘Hex’ (1994). Frustrated by the mainstream, ‘Scum’ was a huge statement that set them apart from the beginning.

Hex is the eighth studio album of Spanish post-rock outfit Toundra. Like many bands all across the globe, 2020 forced a new and unexpected reality upon the Madrid natives, who found their touring plans cut short due to the pandemic and would begin shifting their focus towards recording new material under unusual circumstances. Frequently traveling between Madrid and the Cantabrian Coast in 2020, the band would grow to embrace these uncomfortable conditions, and ultimately use them as inspiration to make a record unlike anything previously found in their catalog. Their newest effort is decidedly an album that is divided into two sides. Side A consists of a single, 22-minute-long track, titled “El Odio” (Hatred), and Side B is made up of four new tracks.