I Hear Sirens
Between Consciousness and Sleep
Lyre Records
Street: 06.22
I Hear Sirens = Mogwai + Daturah + Explosions in the Sky
 
Between consciousness and sleep—that sounds about right for this album. I am not saying that I Hear Sirens are boring—what I am saying is that this album dwells in the twilight, always hovering between light and dark. Hopeful, uplifting guitar lines are countered with brooding, dread-filled passages that have become a staple in this genre of semi-wordless post-rock. I Hear Sirens nail these conventions very, very well. They kill it in the tremolo-picked upswells of electric guitar clamor, know when to play unhinged and when to let a passage simmer and brood. There is little in this EP besides the emotional call and response, made familiar by the genre’s luminaries, to set this collection of songs apart from the crowd or from I Hear Sirens discography—although being compared to Mogwai is never a bad thing. –Ryan Hall