I've never visited Australia but I sometimes read travel books in my free time (go figure). When you come to one about Australia the author always boasts about the land down under and its diverse "biogeographic regions" - ranging from snow-capped mountains in Tasmania to large deserts and temperate forests. Makes sense though. It's the world's smallest continent and the sixth-largest country for crying out loud! That kind of unfettered topographical variety feels right at home in the swirling musical world of Australia's Silver Ray. The watertight Melbourne trio is Julitha Ryan (keyboards), Brett Poliness (drums) and Cam Butler (guitar).

Their episodic instrumental rock (championed in the past by former tourmate Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds) always meandered into the small pockets of silent air and and deep chasms of electric guitar. Poliness' martial drumming and Ryan's flitting key work always made the extended ten minute songs feel less arduous then they were on their stunning debut release, 2001's This Is Silver Ray. Subsequent releases have seen the band cut away some of the post-rock baggage that got tied to them on earlier releases. Their loud-soft dynamics aren't as wrenching as Mogwai or Godspeed You! Black Emperor. I often equate them as a spaghetti-western stamp on Mogwai's more playful moments. After the independent radio success of their second album New Love, Silver Ray was a instrumental gem awash in florid sound that ebbed and flowed through your ears.After the somewhat protracted but equally lubricious Humans, Silver Ray return to their strange symphony on their fourth album, Homes For Everyone. The military beats creeping cymbals, slinky dub bass elements, tender piano and tractor beam electric guitars are all accounted for on the opening track, 'You Know the Truth.' There's always been a  tactile sense of transient space for Silver Ray.That's largely the work of the trotting drum patterns that trot and whinny in the sunlight provided by Ryan's translucent piano. Usually Butler creates the death traps, shortcuts and aural cataclysms laid in the path of his fellow muscians' troll through the countryside. Roles are beautifully reversed on the Spaghetti Western-styled 'Piglet' and 'Prove It Don Quixote!.' Butler's Spanish guitar adds that extra sort of bullheaded whimsy that Cervantes' titular character possessed. Gusts of synth blow us back and spin the windmills (or giants) into a fervor.While the beginning of the album pays homage to Silver Ray's past in their new truncated clothes the songs that come after showcase a new side. The slow burning percussive tone poem 'Reunion' reverberates the same melodic piano line and sends shivers into the other instruments around it. 'Not Far To Go' is a tad more otherworldy with a gurgled synthesizer and a trip hop bass and dopplering ambient noise. Later the slivers of scratchy music comes through in full as a twinkling daydream. 'Larisa' is a sleepy tack piano and tamborine New Orleans death march but then flits between spy music dressings  and a gypsy swan song. Its an interesting piece that might get passed by because of its slow cadence.The same sentiment doesn't hold up with the country rock horse ride into the sunset that is 'Trail of Deception.' It blasts through its runtime on a the back of a sturdy electric guitar riff that would make the Drive-By Truckers gush. My earlier comment that Silver Ray is episodic should be book-ended by a comment that every song fit into its own tiny soundtrack. Every song's garish conflations would seem out of jarring on other on other albums but here they float amongst each other.That's not to say that everything works. '12 Miles' puts a mournful violin and cello dirge up against the kind of sound you might here coming from a Mates of State's electric organ. It doesn't mesh well but its an intriguing experiment nonetheless. The last two tracks ('The Streets of Melbourne' and the title track) are some of the typical dusty instrumental rock you've come to expect from Silver Ray but stripped of Everyone's spirited tempos or running lengths. They slowly unfold before us and lighten upon our ears but quickly makes you realize that returning home can be a strange and beguiling situation. Silver Ray sticks to diversity just like the homeland. 76%Links Silver Ray [official site] [myspace] [label]