It’s unreal how many bands they packed into the Roadburn festival. It could have been three separate killer fests and no one would have complained. Being there was like being at the Metropolitan Museum in New York — you couldn’t possibly see everything on offer in one day. Though it was fun to try.

Walter and the good folks at Roadburn have made available more live audio streams, and they sent me the links to share with you. I remember Fatso Jetson‘s performance was especially killer, but I wouldn’t count out any of these bands, because I’ve yet to hear one of these streams I didn’t think was awesome. Enjoy:

Fatso Jetson live at Roadburn 2010

Sons of Otis playing Templeball live at Roadburn 2010

Ahkmed live at Roadburn 2010

Night Horse live at Roadburn 2010

Despite the douchebag rantings of privileged US economists to the contrary, the world is far from flat, and so, when I listen to the sweetened, mostly-instrumental post-rock of Melbourne, Australia trio Ahkmed, I can’t help but get a sense of isolation out of the music. A certain loneliness. Even the title of their Elektrohasch debut, Distance, would appear to convey a feeling of separation, and all the more if they’re referring to the emotional spaces between things rather than the physical. Lonely either way.

Think about it: even with the album art above a single iris and the vast reaches of space are pictured, so what’s essentially carried across is a feeling of singularity in something much bigger than one’s self. Even if the sunrise in the pupil as we see it is a reflection of what an interstellar traveler is watching, there’s no denying the weight of cosmic motion is a humbling experience. That kind of thing is bound to make you wistful.

But the music has moments of gorgeousness nonetheless, and the heavily reverbed guitar of Carlo Iacovino and the warm bass of Dan McNamara provide no shortage of them. It’s a tone and technique you could take as far back as Kraut rock, but we’ve seen it most recently and most effectively of late with the likes of Red Sparowes and the neo-Neurot set, though Ahkmed are far less pretentious in their delivery. They refer to their style as post-stoner, and I suppose that works. Psychedelic post-rock would do just as well.

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