Three Steps to the Ocean
Until Today Becomes Yesterday

THE REVIEW

When we talk about instrumental music, people tend to always think of that fringe of artists devoted to the oft-cited post-rock style of Godspeed You Black Emperor! Or perhaps the better-known Mogwai; or lately (but not really, considering they've been around for many years now) the heavier facet of the aforementioned genre: the instrumental post-hardcore of people like Pelican, Red Sparowes, and company.

Well, it could be said that the very Italian Three Steps To The Ocean belong to both branches, serving as an illustrative summary of such expansive sounds. Well, it could be said, yes, but only in part, as they are more than this and perhaps less (but in a positive sense) since there are quite a few, if not too many, bands of this kind around nowadays, perhaps.

Why more and less of these sounds can be quickly explained: TSTTO are post-rock, yes, but in spirit, not in form, and the same could be said for post-hardcore; they are expansive, yet concise, dark, undulating as their name itself would suggest, full of elegant and never intrusive electronics, full of muffled psychedelia that at times is so dreamy it induces you to close your eyes. They are emotional to the core, minimal (and here’s the sense of “less”), essential, yet full, with those pianos, those sparse sounds, and at the same time enveloping, with those avant-garde pearls that evoke certain folk, with that distinctly Italian sense of understanding music, almost Mediterranean, yet highly exportable, they are progressive in the true sense of the word, they fill up as the track progresses, and not even for a moment do you feel the lack of that essential rock instrument: the voice, which unfortunately happens too often with other bands of this genre.

Six tracks, but it could very well be one, a unique lament of silent but screamed melancholy, a fire that especially blazes in the acoustic moments, where those samples and synths become masters of dry, enveloping synthetic rhythms. Then, without realizing it, the end already arrives, and everything takes on an even more blinding meaning, the purity of that desperate melody in the tail of “il quinto giorno” that makes you say: “well, these guys have talent and plenty to spare!”.

Post-rock, post-hardcore, yes, but charged with new, fresh meanings, surrounded by not new elements but well-studied, making them interesting and surprising.

We’re not calling it a miracle yet, but the guys definitely know how to keep their machine on the right track and at the right speed, provoking embarrassed, awed shivers, where you say: “yes okay, I’ve heard this before, maybe a little derivative, but my goodness, how beautiful!!”.

The Three Steps To The Ocean will grow, and they will do it in the best possible way, I'm sure of it, deeply convinced, they will know how to smooth out some small edges, some small flaws, to truly become great.

In closing, I’ll say a name: James Plotkin! A much-celebrated artist and noise guru (in the ranks of Khanate, Khlyst, etc., etc.) who features in the notes related to the mastering of this work, and if he’s not a guarantee, who is today?

Keep it up guys...