Foxhole

Post rock is a genre that can be a funny little slice of music. On one hand, you have your cheap imitators; those bands that think that post rock is nothing more than exaggerated songs played at volumes that only vary between a whisper and ear piercing. Then there are bands that truly bend the rules of standard music arrangement; bands that are pushing a number of influences into a meat grinder to produce a sound that is uniquely their own. Sadly, the latter is becoming few and far between as the genre starts to become watered down by musicians not willing to jump on the emo rock bandwagon… but eager to jump on some bandwagon.

But I'm glad to report to music fans, and Indie Workshop readers alike, Foxhole is a band that falls into my second description of post rock bands. This band of five guys from Kentucky blends styles together from all over the musical spectrum; everything from your typical post rock, to indie rock, to classical, to jazz. It's all dumped into a blender and mixed together. But not into a smooth, creamy concoction, but one that leaves distinct chunks of each influence to stand out on its own.

With each listen, We The Wintering Tree reveals a little more of its past to the listener. You get a sense of depth behind these songs, the kind of depth you get when listening to albums by Do Make Say Think or early (raw) Mogwai. It's a depth of understanding their musical surroundings. It's an ability to arrange music in such a way that it touches the heart of the listener.

Bands like Explosions In The Sky keep within a defined sound. Now, I'm not putting that down, I'm a big Explosions fan, but you know what the next song will bring on their albums. Foxhole spread the wealth around. They will take a slow, heart wrenching song and follow it up with something that sounds like it was influenced by Fugazi but somehow it all comes together as one cohesive album. That is the beauty of We The Wintering Tree, it keeps you on your toes but still encased in one lucid world.

This album is something I've been listening to for a while now, but I was never really comfortable writing about it. It's a hard album to put into words, and an even harder album to digest in one or two listens. This is for the fan of dense soundscapes. This is for the fan of records that not only stick with you, but also effect you differently each time you put it on. This is on the top on my list for one of the best unheard albums… - Indie Workshop

“As one of 2004's most overlooked albums, We the Wintering Tree is a testament to Foxhole's talent and artistic creativity. The album moves with varying force, changing forms slightly from song to song in order to creative a diverse arrangement of compositions and sounds.” - Decoy Music

“Foxhole is the anti-Explosions in the Sky, in the sense that it succeeds in remaining exciting… This is a particularly hard album to define because inside its extreme coherence one feels much more broad musical influences and an extreme ease and self-confidence of it… With Foxhole one finds feelings which one has not had in ten years, from the time when the genre was young and free and where each group was able to bring its own vision… The heart of the musical myth that is Louisville starts to beat again.” - Derives