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Within most rock critics' narratives of the history of rock, subgenres are generally birthed by subgenres. Rock and roll came from the blues and R&B, fusion came from jazz and rock, heavy metal descended from the blues, etc. Assuming, of course, that this type of narrative isn't pure fiction, it's fascinating to me how these sub-sub-genres break away from their musical parents and became subgenres on their own. For instance, when, exactly, did heavy metal stop being so darn bluesy? The genre's two biggest early pioneers, Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, were pretty much just ridiculously amplified blues music, but by the time you get to bands like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest heavy metal is its own beast, completely free of blues influences. Nowadays we can see this happening very clearly with screamo; what was once a bastard child of the DIY hardcore scene has, as of late, come into prominence in its own right, breaking free of the narrow musical and ideological constraints of the hardcore scene and realigning itself with the politically disengaged but musically ambitious indie rock scene. Both Scent of Human History and Memory as Perfection are part of this trend. Sure, both have fast, loud and screamy parts (though even these bear very little resemblance to anything a current hardcore band would do), but from a formal standpoint both groups seem to have a hell of a lot more in common with indie's forebearers rather than grandfathers of hardcore like Minor Threat and the Bad Brains. Scent of Human History, for instance, have a very loose and spacey vibe that one can hear similar strands of in most any indie band whose ambitions stray beyond the three minute pop song; jam-inclined groups like the Flaming Lips, Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr. leap immediately to mind. A song like "Take Your Time with Time," which ends with an extremely long, loose and meandering jam session, only owes its overdriven Marshall stacks to hardcore; if you're looking for clipped, concise tracks you're in the wrong place. However, Scent of Human History have traded brevity for texture, melody and mood and they're quite adept at playing with all three. Memory as Perfection, on the other hand, have a tighter, more math rock-y vibe that seems to owe more than a little to post-rock groups like Tortoise. Instead of the loose, meandering compositions that populate the other side of the record, here you'll find the kind of tight, repetitive and sometimes claustrophobic songs that are usually only done by instrumental groups like Tortoise or Oxes. Given screamo's long-standing tradition of fiddling with texture and mood rather than rhythm, I guess that it's hardly a suprise that the genre has been embraced by the hipster youth as of late, and this idealogical similarity to indie rock may even indicate that screamo isn't just a passing fad with the indie set, but a new member of their club. However, long after screamo loses its flavor-of-the-month status I think we'll still be able to find value in music like what's contained on this split.
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