Between Verse and Chorus

Rhythm, tone, and nuance are natural to vocals, so much so that, for many musical aspirants looking to trap beauty between verse and chorus, there is a strong belief that the pop dream of creating lucid powerful music can be idiot savant short wired vis-a-vis Jim Morrison with the right mix of booze, noise, and brain candy (which sometimes it sort of can). So, what happens when you take the vox out of the equation? In the hands of less dynamic musicians, you get chakra meditation drones and music suited for the beflowered Target listening station.
Not so for Brooklyn's Ensemble, Et Al. whose compositions march with patient strength, and thrum with firm, deliberate insistence. The resonant, tonal pallette of chimes, bells, and percussive ringing instruments (like vibes, marimba, and Indian Cowbells) effectively drum across the tightwire between post-punk textures, airport spaces, and the endless grass fields of the mind. Clearly these gents listen to a lot of music because there is a pop sensibility in their work that keeps their tunes engaging throughout, bobbing bouyantly on the ocean limn of awareness and sometimes submerging briefly and, sometimes, bringing you with them. Their commanding compositions are balanced perfectly to weave in and out of consciousness, which reminds me:

When Andrew Kenny of Amanset discovered Explosions in the Sky, he sent the tape to their label, on it scrawling the words, "This fucking destroys." What a thing to say about instrumental music.
Counterintuitively perhaps, instrumental music can be so powerful and raw, so emotive, edgy, ripped, mean and real, so punk rock. I'm not just talking about metal drone walls either and classical symphonies, (which are more "metal" perhaps...:P).
There's two reasons for instrumental music's punk power: One, it can be demanding to listen to. It's not part of our natural FM pop programming where vox are mixed like Sinatra and everything else is compressed to kazoo hum in the background. Two, I think it reminds us that music has so much power to speak more than just what the words are expressly describing, and instrumental music (particularly saavy intrumental post-rock) reminds otherwise pop listeners how much there is in the composition and how much there is to experience outside of our usual array.
I saw Explosions in the Sky at a small spot in Tucson and I remember thinking how loud they were, then a moment later, I heard the crisp snap of someone in front of me opening a beer: the music wasn't loud, it just felt loud.
My acid test for killer instrumental music is if I realize suddenly during the middle of the song that my mind is off somewhere else; good instrumental music lubricates thoughts, it unlocks corridors to the less traveled pathways of the mind. It goes it's own way. That's pretty fucking punk rock. If I had to classify Ensemble, Et Al, that's how I would do it: pretty, fucking punk rock.

...
Here's a school of tasty tracks flapping their fins in similar eddies and currents of EEA...
The Six Parts Seven - Stolen Moments

Appleseed Cast - Last In Line

Unwed Sailor - Cuckoo Clocks. The Call of the Windmill

Mark Mothersbaugh - Let Me Tell You About My Boat