It’s relatively easy to write songs that are negative. Significant other break up with you? Get fired from your job? Lose your favourite pair of novelty socks? Grab an instrument and hash out a sad/angry/raging song about it. It’s a little more of a challenge to write songs that are uplifting and positive, and another challenge to orchestrate something as finely crafted as some of the cuts on ‘Made Of Breath Only’. The fourth studio full-length for Australian ‘crescendo-core’ outfit Sleepmakeswaves sees them pushing the highs ever higher, without abandoning post-rock’s trademark dynamic shifts and dizzying instrumentation.
Opener ‘Our Days Were Polar’ eases in gently with wavering synths and distant guitar echoes, underpinned by electronic ‘glitch’ layers that shift uneasily. It’s dreamy, ethereal, and gives you the first glimpse of what Sleepmakeswaves specialise in – the creation of vaulted, vast space. ‘Worlds Away’ is rushing and urgent from the off, digging in with bright guitars and busy drums, the brief breaks of noodling riffs reminiscent of Cloudkicker. Tremolo guitar lines punch skywards, before dropping into a single guitar line over a rolling, poppy, rhythmic hook. There’s tonnes of groove here, aided by Alex Wilson’s punchy yet warm bass tone, and the building climax sees instrumental layers uniting with the same kind of hurried excitement And So I Watch You From Afar bring to the table.
‘To Light And/Then Return’ stutters in with a muted riff before locking in to big, striding chords pierced by higher guitar work. The band’s style is densely packed, but still allows each instrument room to breathe – tune your ear to a different band member or layer and you’ll find something different or new on each track. They throw some slightly jarring, atonal chords into a syrupy thick groove, before taking a hard left into some incredibly dense layering, bulked out by glossy synths that end in a drone. ‘Tundra’ beeps in with a beeping synth loop worthy of some Euro Trance, before knuckling down into a breathless, straight drive. When things drop out to just a single, mournful guitar line the sense of loneliness is palpable; it’s rare that the band uses just a single instrumental line, and you really notice when they do.
‘The Edge Of Everything’ (the longest track, clocking in at over ten minutes) acts as a solid microcosm of the album as a whole, showcasing all of the band’s strengths. A single, brittle lance of feedback is joined by an electronic drum loop and big bass hook, built up by shimmering guitar chords and jangling acoustic notes. Slamming hard into a head-down drive before breaking into mathy guitar work and a ‘jumping’ section propelled by stabbing riffs. Things wind through a passage of considered acoustic guitar buried in a swell of synth, before locking into an organic, heavy section and pushing through to a wistful guitar meander. ‘Made Of Breath Only’ is a sort of caesura: gentle piano and robotic noise cover a soft drum roll. It’s gentle, airy stuff.
‘Into The Arms Of Ghosts’ sees sombre piano chords joined by a four-on-the-floor dance style backbeat, shifting through sidelined guitar sparkle and a mean, pacey drive. ‘Midnight Sun’ starts with a skipping synth loop and mirrored guitar work, but is a touch less realised and solid than the preceding tracks. ‘Glacial’ rides hard on ‘Midnight Sun’s coattails, cascading drums and soaring guitars bringing a touch of resigned melancholia before ending on soaring triumph.
‘Hailstones’ employs those old post-rock staples of backmasking and feedback, a robotic vocal loop coming off as a cross between 65Daysofstatic and Sigur Ros. There’s a grinding synth rise, then a sparse acoustic section (there are more acoustic touches on the album’s latter half) before running headlong through shuffling drums and warm bass interplay. It’s appropriately sunshiney for an Australian band, with lots of lush, gentle layering, winding down into fragile guitar and echoes.
The last third of ‘Made Of Breath Only’ doesn’t seem to pop as charismatically as the first two, and whether that’s down to simple attrition depends on how seasoned an instrumental music fan you are. Every song on the record is meticulously crafted down to the bone, and put together with technical proficiency and true heart. This is joyful, uplifting and relentlessly positive stuff that will often leave you breathless.
JAY HAMPSHIRE