In an ideal world, innovation would happen once, unmarred by copycats. But in the real world, there are no Radioheads without Coldplays, no Sunny Day Real Estates without Get Up Kids, no Strokes without Vines. Trends spawn idolaters, which in turn spawn shit. This, of course, is not limited to bands who break the mainstream; it happens with every genre, no matter how popular or underground. In recent years, post-rock has seen the worst of it. You had your pioneers (Slint, Tortoise, Mogwai, etc) and you had your everything else. And while most of the greats are still together, the "everything else" has left us tired-- no, sick and tired-- of the whole business.
The post-rock subgenre most clearly running on fumes these days is the jazz-centered variation, influenced by Thrill Jockey powerhouses as Tortoise and Isotope 217. Rumah Sakit fits somewhere between that and a brand of math-rock championed by Don Caballero. Something, however, saves Rumah Sakit from the clichéd boredom commonly propagated by jazzy and mathy post-rockers. Never steeped too far in theory and proggy details, Rumah Sakit keeps a keen eye out for two things: emotional intensity and an awareness of unity and consonance.
Both jazz-based post-rock and math-rock pride themselves on musical expression through complicated theory. As has been well-documented, though, it often comes at the expense of accessibility, reducing the music to an intellectual exercise. Rumah Sakit takes cues from bands at the opposite end of the spectrum-- the delightfully simplistic and overtly emotional Explosions in the Sky, for example (albeit less funerary)-- to avoid such pitfalls. "Go Horsey Go (Live)" typifies the approach, killing 2\xBD minutes of complex, winding, metallic rock into silence, then gradually resurrecting its more primal essence with a simple, climactic denouement, driven by non-sequitur guitar patterns and feedback, and a steadily mounting drumbeat.
So now let's talk about "New Underwear Dance", which not only deserves a Grammy for year's best song title but is also further indicative of this band's balance of theory and passion. A bright, bucolic guitar passage draws strength from the gradual addition of drums, overdrive, modulation and counterpoint, finding a vibrant and complex, yet evocative, intensity. The band retreats from this opening section to a simpler groove, but again rises to maximum power-- this time uncomplicated, just balls-out volume.
Rumah Sakit also understand a need for unity and consonance, foundations of rock music. "No One Likes a Grumpy Cripple" bluffs an unsettling modal jazz number, with something like a 7/8 time signature, but instead of leaving the tension unresolved, the band blows the song up with a chorus of attacking guitars. "Sausage Full of Secrets (Live)" also gets to the point, this time a bit more quickly, transitioning from a brief, sparse, Slint-like opener to ascend to atmospheric heights (and a 4/4 time signature welcome to the ears).
Low points are predictable, coming when Rumah Sakit falls prey to the usual cerebral, antiseptic post-rock temptations. For example, the title track's obscured by excessive meandering, never giving any indication of the song's center, or the composition's significance. It winds down with a languid, free-form spaz-out, clocking in at a needless 10\xBD minutes (five of which are discombobulated spaz-time). Other pretentious interludes are less egregious, but their presence definitely hurts the album's overall appeal. Rumah Sakit largely manages to avoid stereotypes and clichés to carve a unique nook within the saturated panoply of post-rock. They may not have created a timeless legacy for themselves, but that doesn't mean this album isn't compelling enough for you to enjoy in the present.
