Jake McMinn is synonymous with post-rock in Melbourne these days. Over the past year, the guitarist has contributed to the canon with Fourteen Nights At Sea’s dramatic album Isola. Under the moniker Lakes Of Russia he’s also dropped a solo disc, Stars Decorate The Fire, that gained him an international fan base and a reputation for crafting beautifully intense instrumental soundscapes. Completing the trifecta is Save Yourself by his four-piece These Hands Could Separate The Sky. Now I’m no expert on the post-rock genre, but I did once subject myself to the terminal boredom of a Tortoise concert, so I can state with some authority that this is nothing like Tortoise. These are dense, majestic epics, swelling and subsiding sexily and creating cinematic moods. Like McMinn’s other projects, these four tracks (you couldn’t really call them songs) evoke ocean-scapes, wind-swept vistas and forlorn mountaintops. That’s cool – these guys do it so well. When the drums and bass and guitar all lock in together and build to some huge crescendo, I defy anyone not to get goose pimples. Still, I would love for them to try to evoke something other than nature scenes (a cardboard box maybe, or a cheese grater), just to f**k with the formula. But maybe that’s like asking Kylie to play some grindcore – sort of beside the point. In the end Save Yourself delivers exactly what it promises and does so to stunning effect. Everyone who is into post-rock will love this EP, so a critical analysis is oddly difficult for me. Indeed, it’s almost impossible to talk about songs like these in musical terms. I suspect that’s part of their creators’ intention. It’s not music to be “understood”, picked apart or remembered by its hooks, melodies or lyrics. Instead, listeners are invited to abandon themselves to the troughs and peaks of sound, turn off their rational minds and feel something. by René Schaefer