sleepmakeswaves – It’s Here, But I Have No Names For It (Review)

After being blown away musically by the new Midas Fall record, the next banger hit my ears immediately afterwards: It’s Here, But I Have No Names For It by sleepmakeswaves from Australia. I didn’t really have the album on my radar, even though I’m familiar with the band. Their albums are repeatedly mentioned in forums as “must-listens” and some songs are also repeatedly included in the playlists of popular streaming services. The band is one of the top-notch quality Post-Rock bands in Australia, and that’s saying a lot in a country that doesn’t exactly showcase a lack of very good Post-Rock artists.

With “All Hail Skull”, the album gets off to a brilliant start for the next 40 minutes. Hard riffs and drums prepare the listener wonderfully for the following songs. Even if a playfulness of the instruments can be heard again and again, heaviness characterises the structure of the song. However, songs such as “Super Realm Park” or “Ritual Control”, which have a distinctly stoner flavour, show that the guys can also incorporate sounds other than pure Post-Rock heaviness. But it also gets quieter, more elegant and drawn out without becoming boring with “Black Paradise”, while “Verdigris” continues in a similar but more transcendental direction. A song that conveys this feeling of floating in the void.

Many bands specialise in one or two basic concepts over the course of their career and then build variations of their artistic idea around them. With sleepmakeswaves it is different, they show again and again that this specialisation does not apply to them, they move in all directions and also prove that with this album. This is also shown by the album-titled penultimate song, which combines all of this. And last but not least, with the final song “This Close Forever”, the band chases a crescendo-like conclusion that simply makes you want more.

All in all, this album is a great ride through different classic music variations that can be heard in Post-Rock.  The excellent playing of the instruments should also be mentioned positively. While with other bands you sometimes get the feeling that a soundtrack or structure doesn’t quite work, this doesn’t happen here. Everything is wonderfully harmonised, controlled but not restricted in the music.

In any case, Post-Rock fans can expect another highlight in 2024 with this album.