“I See No God Up Here” claimed Yuri Gagarin during the first manned space flight, April 1961.

The last really good, pure post-rock/shoegaze albums I heard were Rosetta’s last effort and the last EP by Mouth of the Architect. But in a matter of weeks I’ve heard three; Halo of Flies Records’ excellent LP duo of Northless and Light Bearer and Boston’s VYGR (originally named and still pronounced Voyager) and their very impressive debut of cosmically themed post-rock album, Hypersleep. Being the perfect soundtrack to the cold depths of space and well… a long journey in hypersleep, VYGR’s sound could almost be termed spacegaze or sci-fi sludge, rather than earthly shoegaze. The album is full of delicate flittering synths that add a suitably spacey sound to the backbone of well versed Isis and Neurosis worship — VYGR make no bones about their influences but perform them admirably.

However, rather than filling an album full of forced atmospherics and rangy overdrawn songs that take too long to get going, Hypersleep’s 70-minute journey is much more direct. The longest song is a shade under 9-minutes and the rest hover around the 5-8 minute mark, with three short spacey interludes. Even the longer songs tend to get straight to the monolithic riffs rather than rather make the listener sit through four minutes of atmospheric countdowns before the rumbling, riff-based blastoff.

Opener “Solar” is a fitting no nonsense two minute intro that introduces the listener to Zeuss’s perfectly heavy yet organic guitar production, PJ Mon’s Steve Austin like roars and the band archetypical sense of post-rock riffage. Then the track bleeds into the excellent “Flares” with the track taking a very cool huge, lurching tangent about two minutes in. “Orbital Hallucinations” serves as an apt ambient segue into the massive controlled gait of “Galactic Garbage”. And controlled seems to be a recurring theme throughout Hypersleep as the band has a very deliberate pace and delivery throughout the numerous peaks and crescendos. The album never teeters into too ambient or forced, overly eager heft but just a very steady march and lurch with a few more relaxing, never overdone atmospherics.

Other standouts amid this incredibly consistent, enjoyable album include the shimmering Misery Signals-ish “Unmoved Mover” and perfectly named “Event Horizon” which delivers a wide array of moods, riffs and atmospheres. The album closes perfectly with the dreamy semi instrumental “We Drift” and “A Distant Beacon” glimmering in outer space reminding you there is intelligent life out there after all… I hope someone is listening!

[Visit the band's website]

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