Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on May 2012

This is music for angry, disconsolate times. Music that moans and groans. Music of heartbreak. In 2009 Canadian rock band Wolf Parade toured with Finnish post-rock outfit Siinai. The result was a cross-Atlantic collaboration between Wolf Parade singer Spencer Krug (Moonface), and Siinai on the theme of broken romance and shitty feelings. At the album’s best, Siinai’s churning, psychedelic workouts provide an ideal backdrop to Krug’s melodramatic howls to the moon. “Faraway Lightning,” for example, conjures images of stormy nights and roiling hearts against an innovative merger of ambient techno with orchestral flourishes. At other times lines like “Teary eyes and bloody lips make you look like Stevie Nicks” sound a bit trite, no matter how catchy the riffs. Still, overall this is a moody, atmospheric outing that would sit nicely on the shelves somewhere between Nick Cage and Tom Waits.

Buy With Siinai: Heartbreaking Bravery here.