Grails

Grails fashion expansive instrumental rock compositions that draw from a wide array of styles while featuring distinctive instrumental choices. Their trajectory opened with the introspective and somber post-rock effort The Burden of Hope (2003), after which frequent personnel changes broadened their approach. International psychedelic and progressive rock influences shaped Burning Off Impurities (2007) and Doomsdayer's Holiday (2008), before a more cinematic and occult-tinged aesthetic emerged on Deep Politics (2011). Later works Chalice Hymnal (2017) and Anches en Maat (2023) shifted emphasis away from guitars toward strings and electronic elements.

The ensemble originated in Portland, Oregon in 1999 as an informal bedroom endeavor not initially intended for performance. Founding participants included guitarists Alex J. Hall and Paul Spitz, Emil Amos (of Holy Sons) handling drums and guitar, violinist Timothy Horner, and William Slater on bass and keyboards; they first performed under the name Laurel Canyon, prompted by a challenge to appear live, and issued two EPs. Upon securing interest and a contract with Neurot Records they adopted the name Grails, with Zak Riles taking Spitz’s place. Their all-instrumental post-rock retained ancient Celtic leanings and Eastern modal influences, with most members contributing on multiple instruments. The Neurot releases The Burden of Hope (2003) and Redlight (2004) captured essentially live documents of the young musicians negotiating their collective identity, at times in tension and at times in accord, yet consistently delivering their hallmark atmospheric and dynamic textures.

That approach later grew more forceful and discordant, with the Celtic elements receding in favor of prog, psychedelic, dub, and experimental facets, possibly following Horner’s abrupt exit. While touring Europe in 2004 the band received an invitation to record at the historic Southern Studios in London, resulting in Interpretations of Three Psychedelic Rock Songs from Around the World. Amos selected the three pieces by playing them on the van stereo during travel, forging unity among choices as outwardly varied yet intuitively linked as Gong, the Byrds, and Flower Travellin' Band. The sessions strengthened internal bonds, a near-sympathetic cohesion evident on the subsequent Black Tar Prophecies material, initially issued as a sequence of EPs before being compiled on Important Records in 2006.

In Amos’ phrasing, “Black Tar Prophecies is the essential departure point…it’s where the band finally acknowledged the experimental root of the music we had come to accidentally play together…and by acknowledging that root and embracing post-production for the first time, the group made some of the weirdest, most alien-sounding music it will probably ever make.” Buoyed by an album of such scale that displayed considerable skill and open-ended promise, Grails maintained an active touring schedule across the U.S. and Europe, signed with Temporary Residence in 2006, and issued the widely praised Burning Off Impurities in 2007, followed by Take Refuge in Clean Living and Doomsdayer's Holiday in 2008. They revisited the Black Tar Prophecies series with Vol. 4 in 2010.

A decisive turn arrived with Deep Politics in 2011, which moved past post-rock and psych foundations through collage-style production and sweeping string arrangements by composer Timb Harris. The record drew from ’70s Italian film scores and obscure occult and fringe library music, aiming to “cultivate an immersive environment that inspired both an eternal sense of longing and an impending sense of dread.” Its promotional clip repurposed unsettling footage of a body being pulled from a beach accompanied by a keyboard-and-voice-treated version of Chuck Mangione’s earlier hit “Feels So Good.” Deep Politics stood as their most celebrated release to date; the band followed it in 2013 with the deluxe Black Tar Prophecies, Vols. 4, 5 & 6, gathering previously scarce 12-inch material plus three new tracks comprising Vol. 6. After a period of quiet, they reemerged in 2017 with Chalice Hymnal, another cinematic project incorporating electronic textures akin to the trip-hop-oriented side project Lilacs & Champagne. Amos pursued similar territory on two solo albums, and Grails returned in 2023 with Anches en Maat, a richly textured record shaped by ’80s television soundtracks and disco and soul string arrangements.