Album Review: sleepmakeswaves - 'Love Of Cartogrpahhy'

5 September 2014 | 5:31 pm | Alex Sievers
Originally Appeared In

All hail the Australian kings of post-rock!

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sleepmakeswaves (it's always lower case) are leading the charge for the instrumental, post-rock scene in Australia. This Sydney based four-piece utilize all the typical elements of the genre. Relatively song song lengths, ambiguous artwork, heaps of effects on the guitars, no vocals, lots of different instrumentation and sounds, a plethora of crescendo's, and an album that is filled to the brim with haunting and heart warming timbres.

So while it's nothing really that new for the genre, it's all done in a fine, epic fashion, and as result, it's worth countless listens.

'Love Of Cartography' - the bands incredibly dynamic sophomore effort - never really becomes as dense and as overwhelmingly technical as other instrumental bands like say, Animals As Leaders. In fact, the choice of instrumentation, and the way their songs build and flow together is similar to that of France's Collapse Under The Empire, and their incredible album, 'Shoulders & Giants'. Over its hour long length, it never once bores the listener, instead, it keeps you hooked until the final note rings out. Some might see this album as just one really long song, but they'll be hard pressed to say anything bad about this one song!

From the actual instruments (drums, guitars, and bass), to the samples and triggers, this new offering never makes you scratch your head in utter bewilderment. Rather, it just relaxes you, and thus, allows you sit back to take all of the music in without worrying what kind of insane chord or time signature change might be coming next. There's also some small amounts of electronica and synths littered through out these songs, which just add even more beauty and texture to the timbres and instrumentation of these already finely crafted songs.

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One song in particular does stand out, and that's 'Traced In Constellations'. It takes on a more mainstream rock approach, and could actually work with vocals accompanying it. Something that is rarely said about bands like sleepmakeswaves. It's easily got 'new single' written all over it as well. This is probably the best song one could pick to introduce the uninitiated into the world of post-rock, without having them run in fear and confusion.

A lot of post-rock bands, sleepmakeswaves included, use similar song structure ideas - using one short quiet song to help lead into a loud, dynamic one. The minute long swelling drone of 'Singularity' pulls the listener into the haunting and suspenseful intro of 'Emergent', which adds all of it's interweaving parts one by one until they all swing and groove together. It's also one of the more experimental songs on the record too. This is done again later on with 'A Little Spark', a calming, atmospheric three minute listen, that smoothly transitions into the grandiose crescendo-ridden soundscape of 'How We Built The Ocean' - one of the best songs on the album.

'Your Time Will Come Again' is the eight minute curtain call that the album deserved. It's eight minute length really allows the band to take their time building up one of the strongest, most emotional crescendo of the album. It's moments like this that really assert this album as a must-listen for 2014.

Australia isn't necessarily known for it's instrumental bands, but with sleepmakeswaves latest offering, that should hopefully change! 'Love Of Cartography' is easily one of the best post-rock releases of the year!

Perfect Detonator

Traced In Constellations

Singularity

Emergent

Great Northern

The Stars Are Stigmata

A Little Spark

How We Built The Ocean

Something Like Avalanches

Your Time Will Come Again