Milwaukee, Wisconsin quartet Sleepersoiund have recently released their latest long player ‘Medias Res’ on the Shore Dive Records imprint, the bands first new music since their 2016 Pilots / Passengers / Portals EP, and sees them further hone their experimental shoegaze post-rock
This band have a hypnotic ambience about them which draws on clean sounding guitar with subtle pedal effects. The band play around with time signatures, (thanks to a highly creative rhythm section), but have a warmth to their tunes, unlike Slint, the edgy fathers of Post-Rock and the altered time signature.
The band create a heady mix of songs and an instrumental and really get creative with their instruments by building a little sonic world for their tracks to exist in. They often put me in mind of experimental 90s UK Indie bands who were doing their own thing during the swagger of Britpop. Acts such as Arab Strap, Nub and NoiseBox records jewel in the crown, Navigator spring to mind.
Sleepersound use retrospective , rough-round-the edges keyboard sounds. This works really well with the crisp clean guitar sound. The vocals are distant, often ethereal sounding and effortlessly haunting – the perfect fit for these dream-like tracks. Often the band take the listener into full on Mogwai-style distortion breaks, only to return to laid back, chilled out guitar heavy ambience.
Some tunes have a psychedelic folk meets theatrical-rock sound such as in ‘Gravity Well’, which then turn into sonic walls of Dreamy fuzz and otherworldly sound effects. There are gentle moments too, the blissful music drift of the Sonic Youthy Terminals, which even when it’s noisy is calm and gentle. The songs rather than being perceived as long by the listener, are expansive soundscapes, spacious enough for creative ideas to evolve and flourish.
Medias Res is the perfect Psychedelic-Space-Guitar chill out album as Sleepersound guide you through their wondrous land of Sonic sooth.
