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Post Rock

A Factory Sample, 1978

The Durutti Column

The Durutti Column had two tracks on A Factory Sample, the first record Factory ever released, alongside Joy Division and Cabaret Voltaire. The sandpaper sleeve of their first album was a Situationist joke borrowed from Guy Debord, and Joy Division glued the sandpaper on. Vini Reilly recorded LC in 1981 at home on a four-track cassette deck and kept the tape hiss, and Brian Eno called it his favourite album. In 1984 John Metcalfe arranged a suite based on a Keats poem. Reilly also arranged and played guitar on Morrissey's first solo album in 1988. John Frusciante called him the best guitarist in the world. In 2013 fans raised money for his bills in a day, and in July 2026 the band released its first album in fourteen years.

Louisville, Kentucky, 1986

Slint

Slint formed in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1986 out of Squirrel Bait and other local punk bands. Brian McMahan and Britt Walford had known each other since primary school, and David Pajo played guitar. The name came from Walford's pet fish. Steve Albini recorded their first album in 1987, with tracks named after the members' parents and a dog. Spiderland was recorded in four days in August 1990 in Chicago with Brian Paulson, and Will Oldham shot the cover of the band treading water in a quarry. By the time it came out in 1991 they had split, and it sold under 5,000 copies at first. Its reputation kept growing, PJ Harvey answered an ad on the sleeve, and the band reunited in 2005 and 2013, with Lance Bangs filming a documentary.

County Wicklow, 2002

God Is an Astronaut

God Is an Astronaut were started in 2002 in Glen of the Downs, County Wicklow, by the twin brothers Torsten and Niels Kinsella. The name comes from a line in Clive Barker's film Nightbreed. They turned down label offers to keep control and released their debut on their own label, Revive. It was a studio project until they began playing live, with Lloyd Hanney on drums. They made their own videos, which got played on MTV in Britain and Europe, and Rocket Girl took them on. On their first American tour in 2008, about $20,000 worth of uninsured gear was stolen from their van in New Jersey. They have made more than ten studio albums, including Origins in 2013 and Ghost Tapes #10 in 2021, and toured Australia and New Zealand for the first time in 2025.

The Collection