Kenotic is a difficult album to review, not because there isn't much to say about it, but because there really aren't words to explain how utterly wonderful Kenotic is. So let me start by saying this: wonderful, fantastic, beautiful. Good stuff. Gorgeous. Wonderful. Did I say wonderful?

Kenotic is at the Sigur Ros end of post-rock: more music than ambient, but more ambient than a collection of songs, Kenotic is a complete musical experience that cannot be broken down into component parts, and must be listened to in one sitting to fully appreciate it. Some tracks are more distinct than others, while others merge into emotive, evocative atmospherics that are literally timeless, with no tempo that I can detect. Blankets of Light is one of the more distinct tracks, a delicate, dreamy progression that brings to mind some of the more moody aspects of Pink Floyd's The Division Bell. The vague vocal harmonies that appear here as well as elsewhere throughout the album are simply gorgeous and really carry the strongly emotional atmosphere. The echoey guitar, slow, underwater bass and prolonged background notes, as well as the general lack of drums or a discernible time signature on many of the tracks, add to the dreamy feel of the album.

The production can make or break an album as delicate and as musically complex as Kenotic, but here the production is deft enough that you don't even notice it. There are many layers to the music, and they are arranged and blended perfectly, which is one of the keys to Kenotic's success - and crucially, it is because of the smooth, light production that a track like Wish, a fast-paced DJ Sammy-style dance number, rather than horribly clashing with the entire album instead blends with it, adding a peak to the progression of the album rather than destroying the delicate balance. Indeed in the context of Kenotic, Wish is enough to make you shiver it is so evocative, so melancholic, and the collapse back into the dreamy and yet epic Overcast/Sorrow is natural and satisfying, almost expected.

One of the great strengths of Kenotic is the way it blends elements of ambient electronica (a la Boards of Canada) into the more familiar guitar atmospherics of post-rock without the two jarring. Seventy minutes of dreamy, sleepy music could easily get boring, but here it doesn't because Marc Byrd and Andrew Thompson continue to move between quiet contemplation and vivid, passionate melancholy, mixing instruments, atmospherics, styles and influences but keeping the same mood, the same emotive passion, and blending it all together into a complete, dynamic soundscape.

Just as the album builds up to Wish, so it winds down from What Heaven Allows, fading through three quiet tracks to Rising Tide, the perfect conclusion to such an evocative album. The title track, Kenotic, rides between those peaks, rising and falling on the musical tide, and the ocean sounds that close out the final seconds of the album are utterly appropriate, and leave you emotionally awoken but totally satisfied. An album of perfect length and pacing is rare, but Kenotic is one such LP.

Kenotic is creative, musically brilliant, and one of the best examples of its genre that you are likely to find. It is also one of the greatest debut albums I have ever heard, and shows the amazing talent behind Hammock. When creative, ingenious people spurn record labels and mainstream success and concentrate on putting together an album that is more concerned with sound and emotion than with sales, Kenotic is what happens. It is not possible to praise Kenotic too highly, and had it been released earlier in 2004 I am sure it would have made it to the top of the Best Albums of the Year, and deservedly so.

Hammock are a blindingly brilliant new talent, and Kenotic is a new way forward for post-rock.