Post-rock

Originally used to describe the music of Stereolab, the term Post-Rock grew out to be frequently used for all sorts of jazz-influenced, instrumental, electronica added, music made after 1994. As with all musical genres, it's inadequate. It's used for the music of Tortoise as well as that of Mogwai, to name two bands who have absolutely nothing in common besides the fact that their music is instrumental.

After the second Tortoise LP 'Millions now living will never die', this band became the main Post-Rock item. True, after 'Millions...' lots of bands began to record, using the same sound as Tortoise and correctly were described as Post-Rock (there aren't too many famous examples of these bands, because they weren't really popular and were mostly called 'Tortoise-rip offs'). As diverse as Post-Rock is, so is Tortoise: one member of the band came from the Chicago-jazz scene, another from the harcore-scene.

In the late nineties, Chicago became the home base of may different groups. John McEntire (of Tortoise) became an important producer for lots of them, as well as Jim O'Rourke (of Brice-Glace, Gastr del Sol and many more). Post-Rock began to range from very slow, guitar-ambient (for instance: the collective 'Boxhead Ensemble', led by Michael Krassner, featuring many famous artist: Will Oldham, Jim O'Rourke, Jim White, Mick Turner, David Grubbs, to name a few) to up-tempo, electronic music (Stereolab, who's music is not instrumental).

During the first years of the 2000's, Post-Rock not only lost its coherence, but also its importance, whereas the major artists kept on making high quality recordings. It never was a appropiate term.