The End Of The Ocean

At the end of “Back to the Future,” Doc Brown tells Marty McFly, “Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.” The End of the Ocean definitely needs roads — the Columbus quintet tours far more often than it plays in town — but its modus operandi is similar: Where they’re going, they don’t need words.

“We let our instruments do the singing for us,” bassist Bryan Yost explained.

Post-rock is The End of the Ocean’s chosen medium. Technically, the term encompasses any music that uses rock instruments for typically non-rock purposes — usually expansive soundscapes, often informed by classical or jazz. More often than not, when people talk about post-rock in 2013, they mean sweeping cinematic guitar music in the vein of Explosions In the Sky. (“Friday Night Lights” fans, you’ve heard it.) For lack of a better term, call it “crescendo-core.”

These days, nobody in Columbus does it like The End of the Ocean, the powerhouse that grew out of Yost and guitarist Kevin Shannon’s experimental ambient project. Not that most people in Columbus realize what a force of nature has been whipping up in their backyard. The band played more than 100 shows last year, but most of them were out of town.

The grueling tour schedule requires a level of sacrifice that not everyone can endure; guitarist Trish Chisholm and drummer Robby Stillings both replaced erstwhile bandmates.

“As far as we’re concerned, this band is what we’re going for,” keyboardist Tara Yost said. “So we are putting jobs on the line. Bryan and I are married, so that’s sometimes a strain on our marriage cause we’re poor musicians, and there’s no one else supporting us. It’s just me and him.”

The End of the Ocean has mastered the art of massive sonic swells. Now, as they book more tour dates and write the follow-up to last year’s In Excelsis, they’re waiting for their fortunes to catch up.

“We do feel like we’re on the cusp of something, we’re just not sure what it is that might push us into the next stage of this,” Tara Yost said. “In the meantime, we’ll work for it.” - Columbus Alive

Let's be very clear about something. As a singer Rocks Off is not in favor of instrumental rock music. Rebecca Black's "Friday" is proof that the music industry is finally trying to replace singers with robots, and frankly we don't need a group like Columbus, Ohio, natives The End of the Ocean, who can actually play their instruments without a front man strutting among them adding to our inferiority complex.

Most instrumental jams just make us feel like we've missed out on a whole subset of the music world by never smoking pot, but The End of the Ocean actually brings a modern alternative sensibility and beauty to their music. What they coax from their amps is something that feels as epic as a Final Fantasy cutscene and as relevant as tonight's news.

We're digging it, is what we're trying to say.

But that name... The End of the Ocean? The end of the ocean is freaking land. You can't call a band "Land." That's an uppity cow, right there, and we'll have no part of it. Stupid, lousy no-singer-havers!

We put all the things we learned watching Navy SEALS to work and snorkeled our way onto their tour bus to demand where the hell the name came from.

"The idea of our band was born out of a concept about a journey through the ocean taken by a close-knit crew of people - shipmates," says bassist Bryan Yost. "Shipmates share the same anguish, elation and victories - it doesn't matter if they weather the same circumstances together at the same time - they all experience these things with and through each other.

"Most everybody experiences life this way. We wanted to capture the vastness of the ocean and the variance of emotions that a sea journey would entail if it were immortalized into a soundtrack."

Could it be? Could we have finally found a band whose name actually has some meaning to the music they were doing and the lifestyle they wished to live?

It seemed impossible, but that actually made some kind of damn sense. The music of The End of the Ocean does flow like the soundtrack to some kind sea opera... 'cept of course that operas have singers.

"Because of how big the ocean is and all of the secrets it holds, it can be paralleled to many things such as human nature, rise and fall of empires, war, mercy, grace, hate, love, life, death," says Yost. "We wanted to pick a band name that could be left open to the interpretation of the listener to decide for themselves what they feel and think when they listen to our music."

Frankly we basked in this. So often when we explore band names we get explanations ranging from love of beer to simple "Yeah, we really should come up with an answer for this question." Here was meaning.

There was one thing we feared though. When we first heard the name The End of the Ocean, we were just thinking about beaches. What if there really was an end to the Ocean?

We're sure most of you have heard of Caligula, the Roman emperor who ruled between 37 and 41 A.D. Caligula started out okay, but he had some kind of stroke early in his reign, fell into a coma, and when he woke up was thoroughly cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs.

Allegedly, he tried to make his horse a Senator, pimped for his sister when not partaking of her product himself, and once threw an entire section of the audience to the lions during a day of gladiator fights because he was bored. To be fair, in ancient accounts of Roman emperors it seems that accusations of these type maybe just be the classical equivalent of the Birthers, but Rocks Off isn't going to let that possibility stop us from extolling the civic virtues of equestrian governance.

The reason that we bring up Caligula, though, is because he kicked the ocean's ass.

One of the things Romans loved was conquering people, and then parading the loot and prisoners through the streets of Rome. They called it a Triumph, and like arranging gladiator matches and chariot races, it was a good (if not essential) way to curry favor with the voting crowd.

Well, Caligula wanted to hold a Triumph, and sent the army to conquer Britain. When they got there, there weren't enough ships to carry them across. Caligula had them gather sea shells by the sea shore, carry them back to Rome, parade them through the streets, and told everyone he'd conquered the ocean and robbed her of her treasure.

Nobody argued with him because it's not a good idea to get on the bad side of a guy whose Facebook interests include "poisoning."

What if some modern-day Caligula pulls the same trick? No more sea journeys, no more shipmates, and eventually no more music from The End of the Ocean.

"With a force as epic and crushing as the ocean, it is obvious that Caligula was a liar," assures Yost. "As a band, we are merely men and woman who are known to slay thousands of pizza slices."

So there is hope... and pizza!

FINAL DEFINITION

The End of the Ocean (n): 1. The power of sea through comradeship. 2. Soundtracky goodness. 3. Caligula was full of shit. Why does this Coke taste funny? Poison!? Never mind, it's just Pepsi. - Houston Press

In The End of the Ocean’s case, the passion is post-rock, the epic strain of movie-soundtrack music popularized by the likes of Mogwai, Sigur Ros and Explosions in the Sky.

This Columbus quintet does it well. On record, they present a compact take on instrumental post-rock, getting straight to the bombastic emotional payoff rather than parading through one 12-minute song after another. On stage, they’re an all-consuming force to be reckoned with. - Columbus Alive

Columbus, Ohio based The End Of The Ocean release their follow up to the excellent Pacific Atlantic, the name of this latest release is called In Excelsis, which is Latin for ‘in the highest degree’. The music on this release is in the highest degree, great songs, great sound, great production. 5 well crafted post-rock songs coming in at just under 26 minutes in length. Future Recordings continue with the innovative treatment for this release with a CD release that also has a lathe cut vinyl track on it. There is also a standard CD, 12? vinyl and also the now standard digital release. Ok but what about the music, well songs range in length from a very short two minutes to a mid length 7 minutes. The two tracks that I played on the show were the opening two tracks on the album, On Floating and Star-Crossed. Both these tracks are real powerful songs, with nice quiet moments and very nice loud passages as well. They keep the music interesting with twist and turns, changes in tempo, rhythm and they keep the music on track, it always seems to be going somewhere. Track three seems to me to be an interlude as it has mostly quiet moments, this is just to lull you into thinking that all the loud bits are over, well the last two tracks on the album come at you with all guns blazing with a sound that is definitely The End Of The Ocean. I wondered how the follow up to Pacific Atlantic would sound and would they be able to stay at that level. Well I believe that they have done an amazing job on this release and it will definitely be in my top half of top 10 releases of 2012. - Fade To Yellow - KOOP.ORG

97%

If you weren’t aware the post-rock hotbed for America can be found in Columbus, OH. Not only is Columbus home to some guy named Ben Sharp (Cloudkicker), it’s also home to The End of the Ocean. The End of the Ocean are quite unlike any other post-rock band you’ve ever heard. Not because they feature 2 female band members, but because their sound is so unique and well crafted that it’s just impossible to forget their songs. In a genre that is filled with Explosions in the Sky imitators, The End of the Ocean has consistently reinvented their sound with each of their three releases. From the humble beginnings of “Calm Seas Don’t Make Sailors” which was a more ambient record to their 2011 gem “Pacific.Atlantic” which saw the band break out of their shell and showcase a fully developed sound and style, we are now presented with their latest effort, “In Excelsis.” Clocking in at only 23 minutes, it would be unfair to consider this 4-track release an album so I will be reviewing it as an EP.

“On Floating” opens the album and is a brilliant slow burn build up track that consistently increases in pace and loudness. Guitars chug along as a thick low-pitched keyboard note fills the background with wonderful bassiness (is that word? I don’t care, I’m using it!). “Star-Crossed” is up next and easily rivals “Maybe for the Better” as my favorite End of the Ocean song. Despite a very heavy opening the track mellows down quickly and plays host to the best guitar work on the EP. The bass in this track is far separated from the wailing guitar within the mix which leads to an absolutely phenomenal and spacious sound stage. This track is the epitome of “getting it right” when it comes to post-rock because everything just clicks.

“Like Honey from the Branch” is a huge track that takes you by surprise with its post-metal-esque opening. The drums in this track are predominantly featured and are airy and open sounding and they compliment that static-laced guitar work quite well. The EP wraps up with “All That is Will Cease”, an upbeat track with a faster pace than the rest of the album. Again the guitar work on this track is simply aces as it has been with most of the album. In trying to find any sort of fault whatsoever with this album, I quickly realized that I would be grasping at straws because there are simply no flaws to be found in any of the four tracks.

Perhaps I’m a little bit bias because they’ve been one of my favorite bands for the last year and because I was fortunate enough to see them perform some of these tracks live, but I do think that this EP raises the bar to a new level for releases this year. The production values are better than some albums I’ve reviewed this year and the effort and craftsmanship in the music can’t be overlooked.. You simply don’t find EP’s this solid that often. Generally I expect an EP to have 1 or 2 great tracks and the rest filler or songs the band highly experimented with, but these four tracks are just as good if not better than the ones found on Pacific.Atlantic. If these guys are playing anywhere within an earshot of you, you should do your best to not miss them because their live performance is really something magical, and so is this EP. This is a must listen to EP of 2012. 7-13-12 - Postrockstar.com

“We never expected to use a song by The End Of The Ocean or even find such an under-exposed band, but on one fine day, after hours of research we stumbled across this hidden gem. From the very first promotional shot that we laid eyes on we could tell that these folks we’re going to be something special, a collection of artists that fit like the most complex puzzle imaginable. The End Of The Ocean have a long journey ahead of them and they clearly have a capable crew to set sail with and who knows, maybe one day they will find the the end of the ocean. See what we did there!” - Strange Glue

For those of you who are movies fans, you know that emotional kick you get when you watch a film like Friday Night Lights because of that incredible post-rock score? Obviously that movie is pretty well done otherwise but it's because of Explosions In The Sky that that movie tugs at your heart-strings as much as it does. This is what post-rock always sets out to do and without lyrics, it's incredibly difficult to draw out specific emotions. The End Of The Ocean are a 5-piece post-rock band from Ohio whose nostalgic presence is quite moving. Their debut album, Pacific/Atlantic, was released last year to some overwhelmingly good reviews from just about everybody in the post-rock scene. These guys rock out hard but they are storytellers with their instruments. The songs, specifically on In Excelsis, are very personable and force you as a listener to take a journey through your own mind. This spiritual quest is musically scored by The End Of The Ocean and we experience all the highs and lows of the action as songs rock out hard and at other times slow down into a more moody nature. This is only the band's second album and they are already establishing themselves as one of the few amazing post-rock bands in the world. If you enjoy this genre and haven't heard them, head on over to iTunes and download this album right away. The experience is worth it. - Earmilk.com

The band’s latest EP In Excelsis is a shining example of how beautiful music can be. I love bands that play on emotions, be they anger, love or jubilation. I want something that will pluck my heartstrings and get me to feel. That’s what In Excelsis does from the very opening note.

Director John Cassavetes was often accused of wanting to capture human emotions on film, something he did effortlessly by allowing his films to open up our own minds and project those ideas into the movie. The End Of The Ocean does the same thing. They create music that is unique and very much their own but allow it to be universal. The songs on In Excelsis invites you to place your own experiences on the music so the tunes can become personal to you. So often bands want to cram their ideas down your throat, The End Of The Ocean is exactly the opposite.

The opening movement to In Excelsis is “On Floating”. The first sounds are light keyboards and gentle guitar picking. The drums come in slowly, filling the song up as other instruments become involved. “On Floating” slowly rolls open and then continuously builds to a melancholy crescendo. The End Of The Ocean isn’t afraid of silence, they use it expand the impact of the song. When “On Floating” stops and then comes back in it’s absolutely glorious. Laying back and listening to the song I feel like I’m driving. It’s late, the lights of the road are few and only a few small porch lights illuminate the darkness. When the song opens up its as if I’ve come around a corner and BAM the lights of the city hit me.

“Star Crossed” reminds me of falling in love. There’s an exciting rush at the beginning of the song that opens into something elevated and beautiful. Once those two parts top playing off each other “Star Crossed” moves into a quiet and delightful scene. Like two new lovers discovering each other. I may sound pretentious here but I don’t care. Each note the The End Of The Ocean plays touches me and that’s so rare I want to shout about it. “Star Crossed” even has a droning mid-section that could be seen as the turbulence all new love faces. It ends triumphantly, exactly as it should.

“Like Honey From The Branch” is the heaviest tune on In Excelsis. It opens with a full force assault of hammering guitars, drums, bass and keyboards. Everything plays together in a cacophony of sound before backing off for the dynamic low. What I dig here is that the band doesn’t stop playing all at once, they just subtly drop the intensity level. It makes the move seems less sudden and more thoughtful. I have no emotional context for “Like Honey From The Branch”, instead I’ve found myself laying in the dark listening to it continuously. It’s also quite inspirational when I have to write.

In Excelsis ends with the epic “All That Is Will Cease”. This is the most complex song on the album. The drums are what hold the song together. Instead of being the anchor they are the guiding force. As the guitar notes hang delicately around the bass and the keyboards move playfully around the guitar notes, everything is being pushed ahead by the percussion. The band moves from lows to highs but never loses the drums as the engine to the tune. I identify “All That Is Will Cease” as something I want playing behind me as the world ends. The song actually has an entropy feel to it. Each instrument seems to be breaking down around the drums, much like society breaking down around a catastrophic event.

Complex songwriting, excellent musicianship and an ear for pop sensibilities are all things The End Of The Ocean posses. More importantly though, the have the skill to push emotional states into their music. When you don’t have something as easy as vocals to relate to, the music has to step up and make that connection. The End Of The Ocean realize that and execute it perfectly. In Excelsis is an outstanding record from a band that has yet to fail me. The only part that sucks is even with them living so close (they in Columbus, I in Cincinnati) I’ve never seen them live. Hopefully I can rectify that soon. - Crave Online