Thomas Bel: Innerly

From its opening moments, Innerly entices and immerses in a bleak, near-cinematic, post-apocalyptic wasteland of sound. There’s a strange beauty to the darkness, though. Each passing moment only further envelops the listener until Innerly becomes an utterly inescapable experience that borders on harrowing. This is dark music that offers close to no reprieve in mood and tone. Innerly‘s music is meditative and its lyrics bend toward the contemplative. After a while Innerly almost starts to feel voyeuristic, or as if you’re exploring Bel’s innermost thoughts and darkest moments vicariously through listening to this. It’s produced, sequenced and executed masterfully. Between this LP and Good Night & Good Morning’s Narrowing Type, 2012 is already shaping up to be one of the best years ambient post-rock has had in some time.