God is an Astronaut: A Moment of Stillness
The style of music performed by Irish outfit God is an Astronaut falls under a number of categories that are somewhat constrictive and inaccurate, rarely doing their own individual style justice. Post-rock, shoegaze, nu-gaze, dreampop - none of these really capture it, which is especially apparent when you read of their live shows’ reputation for their visual as well as musical inventiveness. GiaA and similar artists such as Mogwai and Sigur Rós are nevetheless experimenting with how modern music can be redefined while still being melodic and are doing a fine job of it, as the EP A Moment of Stillness ably demonstrates.
The music itself is hard to describe - I can only wonder at how it would sound when performed live alongside the visual accompaniment because it feels for all the world like the soundtrack to a movie that has yet to be filmed, in a similar way to, say, Mercury Rev’s albums. GiaA, on this record at least, take a different tack to the ‘Rev in that the vocals are not a means of vocal delivery but more of another instrument that mixes in with guitar, drums and keyboards. The lack of lyrical content on offer here would otherwise threaten to take away the focus of the songs; especially when they are of the ambient variety that also casts away the pop/rock traditions of guitar and drums solos, not to mention conventional verse/chorus structures that we have become accustomed to.
