Cougar

Cougar is an instrumental group formed in 2005 in Wisconsin, USA. They make music referred to, by themselves, as 'emergency rock'.

The group's lush, dynamic arrangements fall somewhere between Four Tet, Tortoise, Fugazi and perhaps Nick Drake imagined as more expansively pensive than eerily morbid. What separates Cougar from the post-rock pack is their keen sensibility of (and attention to) form/texture, which seems more in line with sample-based music and experimental/modern classical than indie rock, hence the preference for new genres.

The band leaps from the mournful acoustic to the anthemic electric in heartbeats, from subtle dynamic interplay to all-out gut-crushing riffs, from found sounds and sampled percussion to dancehall madness, and from studious minimalism to soaring density.

Verbosity aside, Cougar's music is urgent, captivating and strangely moving. It is emergency rock.

Personnel:
D.H. Skogen - percussions
Dan Venne - guitars
Trent Johnson - guitars
Aaron Sleator - laptop, keys, guitars
Todd Hill - basses