Australian post-rockers reach new heights on latest release.
sleepmakeswaves may not be a household post-rock name like Mogwai, Godspeed You Black Emperor, Sigur Ros, or Explosions In The Sky, but that hasn’t stopped them from gaining a small but loyal fanbase in their native Australia (where they have been nominated for ARIA and AIR awards). In addition, they’ve been played on the BBC and have begun infiltrating American college radio.
Their latest album, It’s Here But I Have No Names For It (out now on Birds Robe Records), will likely provide further inroads to broadening their appeal. It’s one of the most engaging and fresh post-rock efforts in years. Originally recorded in 2022 and 2023, it offers a master class in dynamics, tonalities and mood.
Opening track All Hail Skull sets their intent nicely. It’s triumphant and cinematic, with guitars and synths weaving a tapestry of sound that casts the listener under a spell that’s hard to shake.
First single Super Realm Park sounds like a lost 80s action soundtrack perfect for racing down the highway with bombastic guitars that recall the Deftones, raging like an angry sea before soothing piano brings it to a close.
Ritual Control kick off with a metal attack with chunky guitars and pulverizing drums before launching into new-wave atmospherics and cleaner textures, gradually returning to surly Black Sabbath sonics, while Black Paradise merges plucked acoustic and lyrical guitar lines, which bounce around the arrangement, slowly gathering tension as the drums pick up the pace before culminating in dramatic fashion.
These dynamic shifts are key to sleepmakeswaves appeal, but they aren’t afraid to play with the formula: Verdigris is ambient bliss flecked with oceanic synth swells and affecting piano which exude a deeply emotive soundscape, while the near nine minute title track keeps a consistent tone throughout with soaring guitars, tunneling bass, and plaintive piano and strings.
Terror Future offers up a rare vocal performance from front-man Otto Wicks-Greene who offers a cooing mantra (“the more I see the less I know”) before the song evolves into bombastic drums, chugging guitars and symphonic textures.
The band save the best for last with This Close Forever, which encapsulates all the sonic terrain previously explored on the album, sounding like an unlikely fusion of Cocteau Twins, U2 and Mastodon. The band set controls for the sun as the song continues to build to a massive, euphoric climax.
It’s Here But I Have No Names For It shows a band at the peak of their powers. And while it will surely thrill their fan base, it’s time for the rest of the world to catch up to their masterful, musical alchemy.