Hypnotic Explosions In The Sky At College Street

Explosions in the Sky plays instrumental music that gets labeled as post-rock. The Texas band makes hypnotic and cinematic songs that often build to dramatic peaks. They sound less interested in setting up complicated rhythmic textures that draw on classical minimalism than some bands within the amorphous genre.

Explosions in the Sky got tapped to score the film “Friday Night Lights” more than 10 years ago, and the experience seems to have seeped into the band’s sound, with compact melodic ideas dominating its most recent record, 2016’s “The Wilderness.”

The band has been making music under the name since 1999 and keeps working to make things new, sometimes pulling away layers, sometimes pushing a part to its limit before it starts to morph under its own weight. Explosions in the Sky doesn’t hide away from the centrality of the guitar in its sound. Some instrumental bands go for a more detached, almost robotic feel, but Explosions in the Sky retain a human quality to its songs, even when it evokes sweeping cosmic vistas.

Explosions in the Sky plays College Street Music Hall, 238 College St., New Haven, Thursday, April 20, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $25 to $30. collegestreetmusichall.com.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to remove a reference to how long the band has been making music.