Do Make Say Think

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Since forming in Toronto in the mid-90s, Do Make Say Think have been one of the most consistent, conscious and unpretentious groups to explore the expressive possibilities of hybrid instrumental rock music. Deeply respected by and influential among their hometown fellow-musicians, and dependably praised by critics internationally, DMST have nevertheless flown under the radar compared to many of their peers. The band helped gestate and inform the sound and spirit of Broken Social Scene, among others, but kept their heads down and ears attuned to their own keenly independent and intuitive trajectory. The Do Makes nurtured something genuinely honest, soulful and committed through a string of superlative albums on Constellation in the 2000s, building a small but dedicated fan base that embraced the group's ability to defy the clichés of post-rock and infuse their genre-blending wordless songbook with an immaculate balance of raw explosive energy, pastoral contemplation, modal complexity, pulsating groove and cerebral excursion, shot through with a ragged emotional warmth.

While band members grew busier with multiple musical projects as producers and/or players – the aforementioned BSS, Lullabye Arkestra, The Happiness Project, Years, New Glue Records and Feist to name a few – DMST's recorded output began to slow down in the second half of the 2000s. But the quality of that output remained, evidenced by the band's most recent album Other Truths (2009), which ranked as Mojo's #2 Underground Record Of The Year, alongside numerous other accolades. The release of that album also marks the last time the band toured (save for an exultant one-off performance at Heartland Festival in November 2010); their invitation by Constellation to celebrate the label's 15th Anniversary in Europe this November will be a special and welcome return. Audiences can expect a set that digs deep into the band's brilliant discography. At select engagements during this tour, the band will peform its classic sophomore album Goodbye Enemy Airship The Landlord Is Dead from start to finish. At the group's London UK show, the live performance of this record will be presented as part of the ATP "Don't Look Back" series.

Perhaps it's the title of the group's 2007 record You You're A History In Rust (2007) that serves as the best metaphor for the path Do Make Say Think have charted. Their four albums from 2001 to 2007 garnered a string of Pitchfork ratings (7.9 / 8.1 / 8.1 / 7.8) that reads like a gold-medal-winning platform dive. Yet the band has largely been written out of last decade's musical canon – overlooked by P4K itself in its Top 200 Albums of the 2000s list while piles of more erratic, opportunistic and indulgent rock bands ("post-" or otherwise) managed to rank. Thankfully, quality, integrity and constancy are their own rewards and DMST are hardly alone in being a symbol for the fickleness and frivolousness that conspires against such traits being recalled and recognised more broadly. The five-piece core of Do Make Say Think has remained unchanged since the earliest days; theirs has been a story of humble dedication to uncompromising creativity and friendship through music – the only clichés to which they have unapologetically succumbed.

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