Laura - Radio Swan is Down

Laura is a six-piece band from Melbourne, Australia. Formed in 2001, they released a couple of EPs, while their first full-length album, "Mapping Your Dreams", was released in 2005. This is their fantastic second album, released in 2006. They play beautiful post-rock music, using instruments like piano, cello and synths, but also a variety of electronics and samples. They have recently supported band like Isis, Cult of Luna and legendary post-rockers Mono. Excellent album!

Artist: Laura
Album: Radio Swan is Down
Year: 2006
Genre: post-rock

Tracks:
1. Radio swan is down Part 1
2. Is there no help for the widow's son?
3. I hope
4. Numbers stations
5. Every light
6. Lake Vostock beachfront
7. It's kind of like the innocent smiles
    you get at the start of a relationship 
    before you fuck everything up
8. Radio swan is down Part 2
9. Patterns not people
10. Cambridge bypass
11. Another near miss

Official Website (buy from here)
Last.fm
MySpace

Check the comments to listen before you buy.

Saddleback - Night Maps

Saddleback is the work of acclaimed Australian producer, arranger and composer Tony Dupé, who plays piano, pump organ, guitar, drums and clarinets; constructing loops from small musical sounds. Saddleback has released two albums "Everything's A Love Letter" and "Night Maps". Tony has moved to Berlin to make a third album and to pursue arrangement and production work. This is a stunning album, influenced by jazz, electronica and neo-classical music. Highly recommended!

Artist: Saddleback
Albums: Night Maps
Year: 2007
Genre: electronica, instrumental, jazz, neo-classical

Tracks:
1. Pushing Upstream
2. Hanging at Picnic Rock
3. Rain in Sea
4. Dance Card
5. For Crying out Loud
6. So Low Now
7. Shot Through
8. Singing Scribbles

Last.fm
MySpace

Buy from Preservation records or Boomkat.
Check the comments to listen first.

Boy is Fiction - Broadcasts In Colour

Boy Is Fiction is a studio project by Melbourne producer Alex Gillett. His debut, self titled album was released in 2007. This is his second album released in earlier this year. His music “captures those quiet moments of introspection just before sleep”, a fusion of idm, ambient and electronica. Excellent album! Highly recommended!

Artist: Boy is Fiction
Album: Broadcasts In Colour
Year: 2010
Genre: idm, electronica, ambient, downtempo

Tracks:
1. In
2. As Far From Here As Possible
3. Feeling Lazy
4. Pinprick
5. Silo
6. Sand
7. Rat
8. I Close My Eyes
9. Either Way, I’m Dead
10. Your Name On My Skin
11. I Left You There
12. My Veins Are Blocked
13. Until Morning Comes
14. For My Friend

Official Website
Last.fm
MySpace

Buy from here.
Check the comments to listen first.

Sunwrae - Autumn Never Fall

The exquisite Sunwrae Ensemble was founded during 2001 in Melbourne, Australia. Showcasing some of Australia's finest versatile musicians, the unique and flexible line-up includes piano, vibraphone, string quartet, harp, clarinets, alto flute, lap-steel guitar, double bass, drum-set and percussion. Dynamic, engaging and visually stimulating, Sunwrae stylishly captivate audiences, performing instrumental music by Artistic Director Rae Howell, textured with persuasive rhythms and spectacular improvisation! Performing a lush blend of melodic phrases and interweaving rhythms, Howell's compositions are a rare treat, crossing the boundaries of classical and jazz music, with the passages of improvisation giving their performances an immediacy and vibrancy rarely experienced in a classical recital. This is their latest album, released in 2009. Awesome!

Artist: Sunwrae
Album: Autumn Never Fall
Year: 2009
Genre: neo-classical, instrumental, jazz

Tracks:
1. Autumn Never Fall
2. Chinook Winds
3. Poly
4. The Machine
5. Soluble Sun II
6. Disappointing
7. Drawn Down

Official Website (buy from here)
Rae Howell's blog
Last.fm
MySpace
YouTube channel

Check the comments to listen before you buy.

The Boats - Los Musicos Perdidos

The Boats is a three-piece post-rock band from Melbourne, Australia. This is their first full-length album, released in 2007. The Boats are an atmospheric, dynamic and a beautifully improvised instrumental experience, creating sonic sketches of looped guitars, bass and drums. Dark and beautiful. Recommended!

Artist: The Boats
Album: Los Musicos Perdidos
Year: 2007
Genre: post-rock, experimental, dark

Tracks:
1. Warmth From A Window
2. 2 AM
3. The Sea Is In The Boat
4. Los Musicos Peridos
5. Strawberry
6. Little Black Rays Of Hope
7. Alone In Us (I Hope)
8. Asylum

Official Website
Last.fm
MySpace

Buy from CB Baby.
Check the comments to listen first.

The Dead Sea - The Dead Sea

The Dead Sea are Tim Bruniges, Nick Kennedy and David Trumpmanis, based in Sydney, Australia. They make music and videos using guitars, drums, a voice, computers and phones. This is their debut album which combines elements from post-rock, shoegaze and ambient. Excellent!

Artist: The Dead Sea
Album: The Dead Sea
Year: 2009
Genre: post-rock, shoegaze, ambient

Tracks:
1. Slow Jet
2. Okono
3. The Devil Bends
4. III
5. Zabriskie Point
6. Nulla Desiderata
7. Little Lights
8. Departure Gates
9. Banquet
10. Bandicoots

Official Website
Last.fm
MySpace (buy from here)

Check the comments to listen before you buy.

International Karate - Weapons of Mass Protection

International Karate is a mostly instrumental band from Melbourne, Australia. This is their 2003 debut album. Beautiful post-rock music with influence from shoegaze and noise rock. Highly recommended!

Artist: International Karate
Album: Weapons of Mass Protection
Year: 2003
Genre: post-rock, instrumental, shoegaze

Tracks:
1. A Minor Role in a Major Movie
2. The Details of Your History
3. I Will Hurt You
4. Everyone’s a Fucking Star
5. Beach House
6. Film
7. There Is No-One
8. We Were Like Animals

Last.fm
MySpace

Buy from Sensory Projects. More buy links at their MySpace page.
Check the comments to listen first.

This Is You Captain Speaking - Eternal Return

This Is Your Captain Speaking are a post-rock instrumental group from Victoria, Australia. Their debut album, "Storyboard", was recorded live in a primary school library and was released independently in 2005. This is their second album, released in 2008. Post-rock music at its best; highly recommended!

Artist: This Is Your Captain Speaking
Album: Eternal Return
Year: 2008
Genre: post-rock, instrumental

Tracks:
1. Part 1
2. Incirculation
3. Part 3
4. Lullaby
5. Part 2

Official Website
Last.fm
MySpace

Please support this band. Buy from here. Check their myspace for alternative buy options.
Check the comments to listen first.

It May Never End - Such Is Life

It May Never End is a solo project by Neil Spicer from Lara, VIC, Australia. His music is clearly influenced by bands such as Explosions In The Sky, This Will Destroy You, Mono etc. This is his debut, which is available for free download at Burn the Nation. Awesome music! Highly recommended!

Artist: It May Never End
Album: Such Is Life
Year: 2009
Genre: post-rock, instrumental, ambient

Tracks:
1. Last Light
2. To Fall Without Landing
3. All Thate Remains Is Silence
4. They Would Never Be Forgotten
5. Sticks & Stones
6. For All Eternity
7. The Saddest Story Ever Told

Last.fm
MySpace

Download

Clogs - Lantern

Clogs are four musicians from the U.S. and Australia who compose and improvise using sounds, textures and influences from across the musical spectrum. From the immediacy of folk music, through twisted Americana to the complexity of modernism, their sound marks a new and beautifully strange stage in the evolution of 21st century acoustic-electronic music. Leading members Bryce Dessner and Padma Newsome are also members of indie-rock band The National. Clogs, however, is a different story: amazing neo-classical music with elements of folk, post-rock and experimentation. Lantern is their most recent album. A masterpiece!

Artist: Clogs
Album: Lantern
Year: 2006
Genre: neo-classical, instrumental, experimental, folk, post-rock
Similar: Rachel's, Fifths of Seven

Tracks:
1. Kapsburger
2. Canon
3. 5/4
4. 2:3:5
5. Death and the Maiden
6. Lantern
7. Tides of Washington Bridge
8. The Song of the Cricket
9. Fiddlegree
10. Compass
11. Voisins
12. Tides (Piano)

Official Website
Last.fm
MySpace

Buy from CB Baby.
Check the comments to listen first.

Rob Dougan - Furious Angels

Rob Dougan, who started as Rob D, is a genre-blending music composer from Sydney, Australia, but now based in the UK. Mixing the sound of orchestral film music, the beat of club trip-hop, and bluesy vocals, he is only tangentially relatable to electronic music. He was known primarily for his 1995 breakthrough single “Clubbed To Death (Kurayamino Variation)”, popularized by 1999’s The Matrix soundtrack. It wasn’t until 2002 that he released his debut album Furious Angels in the UK. In 2003, it was re-released in a 2-CD album; the second disc provides the instrumental versions of the first disc. Great album!

Artist: Rob Dougan
Album: Furious Angels
Year: 2003
Genre: trip-hop, electronica

Tracks:
CD1
1. Prelude
2. Furious Angels
3. Will You Follow Me?
4. Left Me For Dead
5. I'm Not Driving Anymore
6. Clubbed To Death (Kurayamino Variation)
7. There's Only Me
8. Instrumental
9. Nothing At All
10. Born Yesterday
11. Speed Me Towards Death
12. Drinking Song
13. Pause
14. One And The Same (Coda)
15. Clubbed To Death 2

CD2 (instrumental versions)
1. Will You Follow Me
2. Furious Angels
3. Left Me For Dead
4. I'm Not Driving Anymore
5. There's Only Me
6. Instrumental
7. Nothing At All
8. Born Yesterday
9. Speed Me Towards Death
10. One And The Same

Last.fm
MySpace

Check the comments to listen before you buy!

Thank you Janus! Really good!

Tangled Thoughts of Leaving - Tiny Fragments

Tangled Thoughts of Leaving is a band formed in early 2004 in Mandurah, Australia. Their music is a unique combination of metal, post-rock and jazz. Really awesome! This is their debut EP released in 2008, which they made available for free download. Get it!

Artist: Tangled Thoughts of Leaving
Album: Tiny Fragments
Year: 2008
Genre: post-metal, post-rock, jazz, instrumental

Tracks:
1. Tiny Fragments Part One
2. Tiny Fragments Part Two
3. Tiny Fragments Part Three
4. The Banshee

Last.fm
MySpace

Download for free from the Lost Children net label. Many thanks to the band for this!
If you like it and you want to support the band, buy it from here (very cheap!)

The Spheres - Audible Lines

This is one of the best albums I've listened so far this year. The Spheres are an experimental AV ensemble from Melbourne, Australia comprised of filmmakers, animators, multi-instrumentalists and expatriates collectively exploring the cross over between live music and visual projection. They play fantastic, post-rock, cinematic music. This is their only album so far, released in 2006. Amazing! Get it!

Artist: The Spheres
Album: Audible Lines
Year: 2006
Genre: post-rock, instrumental, cinematic

Tracks:
1. Traverse The Sky In Three Great Steps (Part 1)
2. Traverse The Sky In Three Great Steps (Part 2)
3. Cordate
4. The Rain That Fell Last Night Made Me Fall From Love With You

Official Website
Last.fm
MySpace

Many thanks to Mogwai for discovering this.
You can buy from here or here.
Check the comments to listen first.