There is more than just a two-hour time difference between them, but without ever setting foot in each others' home states Sydney's sleepmakeswaves and Perth's Tangled Thoughts Of Leaving have collaborated across 3,000km on a split CD that shows the world that Australia's melodic post-rock scene can hold its own.

Harking back to the era of split vinyls — and possibly leaving the door ajar for a future vinyl release themselves — the artists have taken 20 minutes each in which to work. Here, two OzProg contributors split the split and experience the two sides separately.

sleepmakeswaves

By Gary Dickson.

The debut self-titled EP from sleepmakeswaves was a small success for the band. Well-received, the first pressing sold out and enabled them to undertake a series of east coast tours. Their shows built them a profile as a dynamic and flowing live act, a crushing tide of sound would ebb and leave the audience with just a trickle from the guitar and a crisp hi-hat. Such a metaphor beautifully describes the nature of sleepmakeswaves' sound — diverse influences from well beyond the realm of post-rock allow for songs that can seamlessly switch from doom metal to light ambience and electro, then back again in a heartbeat.

Having spent much of the last two years carving a niche for themselves the band could've rested, but instead they have carefully reviewed and subsequently refined the style they crafted. Where the EP saw transitions in the music often happen instantaneously, nothing on the split is quite so spontaneous. Instead of focusing on an early (but satisfying) climax they have opted to slow the act down, gently working their way to a place that doesn't feel as momentous but is sweeter for it. The firm presence of the rhythm section holds you close after everything has calmed and the whispers of ringing guitars promise next time will be even better.

In achieving this, the band have displayed increased attention to detail, along with a greater sense of subtlety.

"Keep Your Splendid Silent Sun" opens slowly but along lines that will sound familiar to fans of the EP, with an ambient ringing and a distorted guitar riff running along in the background. A beautiful piano is the central focus of an intro that weaves through static until drum and bass guitar step in to guide the way. The guttural bass thundering along the low end is the highlight of a much improved mix.

Some light play between a jangling guitar and carefully-echoing electro in "We Sing The Body Electric" turns when the guitar intensity increases and overpowers; the rest of the piece is marked by sections of electronic submission and six-stringed domination.

The keys in "This Is How We Remember (Secret Robot)" are quiet and melancholic until reassured by a certain amount of optimism from the guitar. At this point the mood lifts and, aided ably by strong drum line, the track carries the listener forward through a sonic journey of similar construction to something by God Is An Astronaut. The likeness is not absolute, however, as sleepmakeswaves again avoid a climax that would only serve to cheapen the emotion that had been meticulously laid out.

With this release, sleepmakeswaves have proven they are not willing to stick precisely to what they know and will continue to refine the music that they make. Fans of the band will hear a lot of familiar-sounding moments in this release but a careful listener will notice the subtle differences in their approach. The music is not a far leap forward from the EP but a very promising example of what to expect from the band in the future.

www.sleepmakeswaves.com
www.myspace.com/sleepmakeswaves

Tangled Thoughts Of Leaving

By Bradley Dixon.

While sleepmakeswaves' side is a refinement of what is largely their "signature" sound, Tangled Thoughts Of Leaving have delved further into their own post-rock tendencies and temporarily shifted the jazzy, prog rock fare of their debut album Tiny Fragments to the back of the fridge. Upon first hearing of the SMW/TTOL collaboration in its infancy, I was not convinced that the two bands' styles would synchronise well enough to release a cohesive CD, but the westerners put paid to that by taking what has previously been a secondary influence on their music and placing it right in the spotlight.

As a result, they've added a whole new dimension to their music and clawed themselves nearer the top of the 'most underrated bands in the country' category.

An element that has carried over from their debut record is a love of the grandiose. Their 18 minute allocation is divided into a 3-minute warm-up ("A Vexing Predicament") and a 900lb gorilla of a track stretching to over 15 epic minutes ("The World Is A Deaf Machine"). This breathing space allows them to explore rhythmic patterns in greater depth than sleepmakeswaves, at the expense of truly showing off their genre-spanning versatility.

Parts of Tiny Fragments evoke the full-tilt insanity of Isis at their heaviest, but for the split they concentrate on a different side of modern post-rock: the hypnotic rhythm repetition and slow-burn build up. Being all instrumental and without the shrieked vocals of their debut there is far less of a metallic atmosphere to the music, which the clean, chirpy piano melody reinforces.

"A Vexing Predicament" is truly just a warm up; mostly noodly, glitchy piano over a sparse rhythm, half-heartedly growing towards a chaotic end but not fully exploring itself in great depth. It merely serves as counterpoint to the entirely engrossing composition following it, the beast that is "The World Is A Deaf Machine".

Beginning with a foreboding bass guitar/piano theme which threads itself throughout the piece, the song slowly ambles towards nowhere, gradually building and building until you suddenly realise you're swept up in the middle of the storm and the lush piano punctuations have become aggressive, angular explosions over a wave of guitars. While it takes nearly 10 minutes for the track to reach its zenith, it feels like far less than that before, all of a sudden, it's gone. The build-up-let-down formula is one of post-rock's most dearly-loved and well-practiced cliches, but for some reason it continues to be effective, and is certainly effective here.

Still finding their sound, Tangled Thoughts Of Leaving have added a post-rock string to their already formidably-diverse bow, which will improve the overall quality of their future output (including a full-length CD release coming later in 2009) and expand their audience towards Australia's fledgling atmospheric rock community. As more and more people discover them, they will find a band that taken only two releases to make themselves a must-hear band.

www.myspace.com/ttol