"Eight (long) songs from this enigmatic Czech outfit who artfully bridge the gap between Sonic Youth, Spiritualized, Warser Gate, Can and Mother Goose. And yes, that is a complicated gap, isn't it? The addition of instruments like saxophone and flute add a somewhat King Crimson-esque twist to the proceedings. Are there bands that sound like this in England? And if there are, why aren't I hearing them? THE SLEEVE: a nice blue fold-out job with some weird bug/sputnik theme."

"Subtly powerful rock with creative dynamics and stinging guitar leads like those of their forebears (Slint, Sonic Youth, Unwound)."

"Perhaps the coolest thing about doing Splendid is that because we review every CD we receive, we get music from all over the world. Almost every day, nestled among mailers from Triple-X and Matador and Moonshine and Touch & Go, there's some tightly-wrapped nugget of fun from Belgium, Japan, Australia or Sweden, unfamiliar stamps hinting at mysterious wonders within. However, we'd never received anything from the Czech Republic until Timestorm Was the Signal appeared in the mailbox. Exciting, no? The only thing I knew for certain was that, given the tendency of most Eastern European names to sport a whole mess of obscure accent symbols, I'd be digging out my faithful HTML extended character set guide yet again -- though when I did, I discovered it had finally met its match. These guys' names use accents so obscure I can't display them. Sorry, Waawe. None of this, of course, should matter to you. "What does it sound like?", you're undoubtedly wondering. And that's where things get a bit tricky. If you listen to Waawe with only half your attention, you're going to write them off as another emo band. They've got the loud/quiet/loud guitar thing going on, and the strained vocals too. But they're not throwaway punk rock. There's too much going on here. Perhaps there's a little emo in the group's foundation, but it shares space with a healthy accumulation of prog rock. Waawe starts with the same basic building blocks that Sunny Day Real Estate used to create The Rising Tide, but -- and this is important -- they leave out their egos. A penchant for instrumental cross-pollination doesn't hurt them either, as Timestorm Was the Signal bristles with unexpected musical voices and combinations. In addition to jagged, fevered guitar leads that'll send chills down your spine, Waawe roll out the accents: a surprisingly effective blues harmonica counterpoint on "Sunset City", plaintively jazzy horns on the post-rockish "Electra" and "Cut Song", lilting flute and martial drumming on "Ecstatic Rhythm" and most intriguing of all, a didgeridoo on "Krankreich" (and "Dogma"/"French Dog Massacre", if you turn it up loud enough). Vocalist Patric Kucera's soulful wail is far more Robert Smith than Robert Nanna, further striating the group's sound. At their poppiest (perhaps the jaunty "Slowly Goes the Night"), Waawe remain edgy and unsettling. At their most bleak -- a hard point to award -- they're capable of moments of spine-tingling beauty. Listen to the first minute of "Dogma", which introduces "French Dog Massacre", and see if you don't get the shivers when the bells come in. There's no doubt that Waawe have been informed and influenced by American indie rock trends, but they've made the sound their own. There's a great opportunity here for the right US label -- license these guys and market them to SDRE fans. You'll look really cutting edge and Waawe will get the attention they deserve, while the listening public gets a great album. Everybody wins."

"This great post rock comes to us not via Chicago or New York like most great PR bands but all the way from Czech Republic! Yeah, Waawe have vocals on some tracks, never too strained or angry but always adding depth to the already great instrumentation. They are also able to do the melodic instrumentals without seeming extravegant. The guitars are different with their rhythmic, almost pulsing at times, strumming. The bass in some tracks sound so much like Fugazi but in the track "Ecstatic Rhythms" the guitar lead floats a quiet melody and then a flute is introduced and then finally the vocals come in, all while the bass is plugging away. This 5 piece is really inovative and refreshing. It's good to see bands of this caliber popping up in other places outside of North America. This is a band that would be right at home on Touch and Go or Thrill Jockey."

"Ever wonder what’s up in music beyond the US-Anglo corridor that most of our brains are stuck in? The scenes that are percolating down Croatian back country roads, community centres in Denmark, abandoned swimming pools in Slovenia. Prague’s Waawe (Wave) are the Czech Republic’s answer to American post-punk. They do it so well it’s easy to mistake them for an American band, and I’m not sure if that’s a compliment or an insult. It is perhaps a testament to the allure of the genre. Though they employ a sometimes familiar stylistic approach such as monotone shouted vocals (in English) and alternating melodic/atonal guitar lines, Waawe manage to sound strikingly fresh and original. Stand-out track “Sunset City” has been on repeat since I first heard it. Cough up the ten Euros, rediscover the joys of mail-order, and see how the rest of the world is attempt to save punk from its wheezing death rattle."

"Waawe are from the Czech Republic. What's that, you don't listen to music from outside of the US and possibly the UK? Then you're most certainly missing out on the best band that I've ever heard from eastern Europe. This band with the hard to pronounce name plays a very powerful blend of post-prog-hardcore with fantastic results. This is some truly unique rock. Take a little hardcore esthetic, ala Fugazi, and add in some more melodicism ala Mineral, plus a dose of prog-rock innovativeness along the lines of June of 44, and you get a hint of Waawe. And while at first listen, these songs might sound similar to your average American emo band, on second listen, all the intricacies and unique natures come out to an effect that hints at true brilliance. And the use of odd keyboard sounds and saxophone makes for a nice, unique touch. After a twinkling little intro, "French Dog Massacre" come in with powerful, driving guitars and vocals that are echoed and quite powerful. "Sunset City" is a bit more mellow, with some very flowing bass and more melodic and light guitars. But it's the vocal style, just slightly soulful and deep, that make this so cool. And at the end, when you get harmonica (or perhaps squealing horns) over driving guitar and drums, it really takes on a different feel. "Electra" has more of a free-form feel, with light, slightly jazzy drums, some soulful sax and more cryptic singing, but it totally gets more intense at the end as the textured guitars and drums really build to a fury. The 7-minute "Krankreich" is completely different, with rolling drums, weird, noisy guitars, almost mumbled echoed vocals, and all these moments of melodic noodling and noise and sax. Very cool, kinda trippy stuff. "Slowly Goes the Night" is more poppy, at least by the drums and slightly catchy rhythm. It has a more powerful rock sound as well, especially as the title is shouted out over and over before the singer says, "Let's go!" This is probably my favorite song on the album. And the final, 6+ minute "Ecstatic Rhythms" has just the coolest, bass-driven flow, with soft flute underlying and more of a soulful yet melodic rock feel. Very cool way to end the album. It's tough to really describe Waawe. One moment the guitars are driving all intense-like, the bass is kicking, and the drums are pounding away, the vocals come in all deep and cryptic and full of you-don't-know-me attitude, and I'm rocking away. The next moment, a long, melodic stretch interspersed with soft noises and soulful sax come in, and I get a little lost in the music, looking off into the distance and maybe swaying a bit. It's a cool mixture, and one you've most definitely got to hear. In a world where unique bands are hard to come by, Waawe are worth hoarding."

"This is definitely a strange one. Waawe are from the Czech Republic, and apparently have been around making music for quite some time. And on this 8 track CD they flit from bursts of pulsing post hardcore to laid back jazz. The opening track, "Dogma", had me almost lying back on my bed and drifting to sleep. A lovely twinkling intro that made me expect an instrumental album, but that all comes to a halt as it flows straight into "French Dog Massacre" (excellent song title!) and the vocals join the fray for some mid-paced, arty indie / post rock. The music tucks into a groove pretty much straight away, whilst the singer wails away over the top of it. It picks up the aggression every now and again to rock out, or soothes into a mellow, jazzy break using warm instrumentation that rather reminds of Tristeza. Except with vocals. "Sunset City" is incredibly laid back, and gently persuaded a long by a prominent electronic hum and sparse guitars. Super pleasant, but it doesn't miss the opportunity to do the quiet-loud-quiet switch. But hey. It's done well. And in places it reminds me of the last Bob Tilton record too. Maybe it's the horns. The record seems to actually get more chilled out as it goes a long. "Krankreich" descends into spooky atmospherics and electronic noises, the sound of flying around a futuristic city in some strange space-craft, then abruptly pulls back into the moody guitars and hyper-active horns again. 7 minutes long of mostly instrumental all told. Well, it's not every day we get something to review from the Czech Republic! It's great to hear that bands out there are making some interesting music, what with these guys and Sunshine as the other band I know of from that region. Good stuff. Rating: 7.5/10"

"This is destiny. If a well-experienced manager were to notice Waawe and decide to inject millions to promote their debut album TIMESTORM WAS THE SIGNAL (Silver Rocket, 2000, 36:52), I bet my shoes the investment would come back to him multiplied five times. But here's another story: Waawe has released their first album by a small label that will barely find customers for a few hundred CDs. Besides that, this label doesn't even have promo costs so they'll be lucky for the few that actually find it. Paradoxically, that is what both band and a label wants. Waawe filled their approximate half-hour release with energy and magic that gets to the surface only partially or not at all after the first listening. Although Waawe doesn't deny their hard-core roots as it's not a case of a primary aggression or rawness, the signs of the "hard - core". This music is built on a much softer ground: it sounds a bit pathetic, but the CD is charged with a great energetic potential through honest feeling and tenderness. It's not about musical spontaneity or catchy music and arrangements with ideas only. It's the way people from Waawe approach their music: they're not calculating who-likes-what but their approach comes from a desire "to express yourself". The opening song Dogma, bursts with expression. There is a soft and surrealistically mysterious guitar that flies in space, spars drums and down-to-earth bass with melancholically urgent vocals. Each instrumental line is easy to read and is autonomous as the line flows with a predatorial openness. But Waawe doesn't sound as a heterogeneous wall of noise, it's the hard-core, or rather rockn'roll bullet that keeps this music in shape. Other instruments come later, like a spacey saxophone in Cut Song just like from the Psi vojaci band, recorder or harmonica in some others, then we've got the music that is not just original, but also highly contemporary. Could you think of anything that represents a postmodern mix at the end of the millenium better than a peaceful, romantic heartache mixed with hard electronic guitar riffs, secret codes vs. nature and symbiotically being predatorily honest?"

"I’m glad people in the Czech Republic form bands, because this beats the majority of the American rock from this pile. It’s off-kilter in a great way, shifting from light, Sea and Cake informed light-rock to ambient electronics to focused post-rock within the span of a song. Keeper."