Love Of Cartography - sleepmakeswaves (2014)

I sometimes chafe at the term “post-rock” because a lot of it doesn’t feel that “post”. My reductivist joke is that just not hiring a singer doesn’t make you “post”. You’re not really creating something that isn’t just straight up instrumental rock music.

These are nitpicks, and i don’t mean to sound like a gatekeeper because I don’t care that much. Sleepmakeswaves are a top-notch band, and this is (I gather) one of their best loved records.

While it is kind of straightforward instrumental rock, it also has a lot of texture and a lot of personality. If post-rock is supposed to be surprising, I’m not sure that this succeeds. But if it’s supposed to be well-played and well-recorded then it’s great.

Tracks I liked:

Perfect Detonator - crazy percussion over some great melodic work.

Emergent - They really stretch out their sense of dynamics and space here on the longest track on the record. The mood changes frequently and clearly divides the track into chapters

How We Built The Ocean - a straight ahead banger