They may label themselves a trio, but Melbourne group Small Sips are far more than that on their debut album The Morning Ripples. Built around the talents of Sodastream singer Karl Smith and two former members of the Paradise Motel – vocalist/organist Matthew Bailey and multi-instrumentalist extraordinaire Matthew Aulich – guests pepper The Morning Ripples.

It’s like a who’s who of the Melbourne indie rock community, with members of bands such as Ninetynine, the Drones, and others besides appearing throughout. Yet The Morning Ripples is a fragile record that belies the amount of instrumentation on it – from opener “Abney Park” onwards, there’s a distinct fragility to it.

While the combination of Smith and Bailey as vocalists is a perfect fit, with Smith offering lightness to Bailey’s darker edges, it’s the layers of sound on The Morning Ripples that show just how good Small Sips promise to be in the future. The sounds are delicate, yet the honest and sincerity found throughout this debut album most certainly have something to offer now and into the future.

Here’s hoping this is more than just a side-project, as Small Sips have begun their life very strongly with The Morning Ripples. It deserves to be more than just a one-off release, with the album feeling very much like a completed effort rather than merely an experiment in songwriting. Pieced together over time, it’s clear that Small Sips have treated the crafting of The Morning Ripples with a determination to produce a cohesive document. The experiments within the songwriting have come up trumps.