With an album title like They Can’t Hurt You If You Don’t Believe In Them, Seattle’s Post Harbor is, in a way, exactly what you’d expect. Blending a modern post rock sound – that ever-loved epic fight between soft and loud – with the sensibilities of indie rock circa the mid- to late-90s, the album opens with instrumental “Ponaturi” before sneaking into a similar sound with “Cities Of The Interior”. It’s a surprise when, roughly two-minutes into the song, vocals chime in melodic and nonthreatening; you don’t expect it at first, but after a moment they greet you like an old friend. Then they’re gone, and wind-blown silence takes over before deafening guitars ring high as mountaintops.

Opposites are at work, obviously in the soft-loud-soft instrumentation, but also in the juxtaposition of vocals and everything else. The instruments often let loose in chaotic bouts of expansive volume, while the vocals are almost always restrained and held close. This contrast bodes well for Post Harbor, whose emotive nature, above all, seems to keep the band sane. You’ll hear it in the final moments of “With A Line Graph I Can Tell The Future”, when the band joins vocalist Anthony Calucci in harmony.

This album is cohesive. Each song leads into the next conceptually and melodically. There aren’t breaks, only soft pauses before dominating guitars return or mysterious soft melodies take over; the wind may die down, but it never fades away entirely.

Post Harbor: Caves, Hollow Trees and Other Dwellings [mp3]

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Burning Building Records [CD, 2010]

1. Ponaturi
2. Cities Of The Interior
3. Shirakashi
4. With A Line Graph I Can Tell The Future
5. The End Of Something Great Is Coming
6. Alia’s Fane
7. Augustine
8. Caves, Hollow Trees And Other Dwellings (mp3)
9. For Example, This Is A Corpse
10. Intro