Sleep In
[audio:Sleep In -Two Hands.mp3,Sleep In - Skin.mp3|titles=Two Hands,Skin|artists=Sleep In,Sleep In]
Sleep In is an 18-year old, or at least, he was when he recorded Pyramid, his debut full-length. It took that a while to sink in for me, but it finally did when I listened back to some music I had recorded when I was 18, and realized that while my early material was unlistenable, Sleep In’s is excellent. And there you go.
Here we have a combination of shoegaze, some hints of electronica, rock, maybe even industrial; some warbling, wispy songs that remind me of a mumbling folk singer, even a country singer, very private songs that make you feel close to the artist. Those are almost invariably followed up by more up-tempo, heavy tracks, songs that hide a layer of enthusiasm and joy that quickly made me feel a bond with the whole record. There’s just something infectious about it.
This is a short record, a sign of musical maturity I’m still not sure I possess. Sleep In shows musical talents and polish far beyond his age, and the fact that it’s a one-man production hints at the fact that we can expect even more amazing material soon. If artists develop as they age, and I think they do, then Sleep In is about to produce some incredible material. As it is, he could stop now, with Pyramid, and be happy with his output, but that doesn’t tend to be the way of the home-recorder.
The touchstones here are bands like Deerhunter and Atlas Sound, the genres are ambient or shoegaze or rock, but really, it’s exactly what we all like: someone pouring their heart into a record and then setting it free into the universe. That he’s so young is just one more thing to think about when I’m making excuses about my own recording.
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Reviews
“Sleep In is the project of Australian mastermind Hamish Duncan. He self-described this release as “ten tracks of pop, pysch, alt-rock shoegazy dreamyness!” It’s hard to argue with that, and it’s hard to argue with the fact that Duncan has some incredibly deep skills. His sounds keeps you listening, as he changes between shoegaze and drone and psych-pop. It doesn’t surprise me that Nine Inch Nails falls under his top friends on Myspace, as “Skin” and “Sonic Mass” pull some eerie industrial-rock strings. The album starts pretty slow but quickly picks up in the second half, where most of the music is. Note the self-production of Duncan, which stands out tremendously on the Untitled tracks. It seems that this release leaked onto the internet sometime in mid-2009, but is getting a 2010 release from Enemies List Recordings, a home-recording label. Duncan seems to put much time into his project, so always be on the lookout for more of Sleep In. ” – The Noise Is…
“Now, I don’t want to set a precedent that’ll post on anything I’m sent, for I am way too lazy and far too big an asshole for that shit. Moreover, believe you me if it sucked I’d tell you and most likely would not even bother sharing it. However, this guy really did make some pretty damned good music. It is an eclectic album to say the least. At first I thought it’d be folktronic and then a few minutes later I thought I was listening to metal guitar and then it went into drone-like electronic rambling. The artist described it was electronic shoegaze and I do suppose that is as accurate as anything I might come up with. You’re just gonna have to trust me that I’d have shared this even if it wasn’t sent to me.” – SpacerockMountain