Sleep Leagues Beneath
Sleep’s Leagues Beneath latest release on Jack White’s Third Man Records shows their classic musical form and expands it into new territory.
The introduction gives no surprises with a sound akin to a trudging, wolly mammoth of megalithic proportions stalking slowly toward your home. Sleep’s hard destructive fuzz tone is amazingly harmonic and full designed to set the loudest amps on fire (good thing Mike Pike has four 100W Orange full stacks)!! Music does not get heavier than this below 120 BPM!!! It’s deliberate “slow” crushing is punctuated with Mike Pike launching into blazing guitar solos with fast arpeggios that are blistering.
Al Cisneros lays the foundation for Sleep’s genre defining sound with stoner vocals and unmistakable rhythmic bass playing. The lyrics are sparse and aggressively sang with fantastical lyrics involving deep sea diving and getting high.
The end of the song opens up to their softer side with soothing strummed guitars with a bit of stereo tremolo and flanger. There is a clean guitar playing behind Mike Pike’s gently overdriven tone, and spare thin fuzz toned guitar lines. It is interesting to hear the various directions Sleep is taking their sound both heavy, slow, brutal, and nearly ambient.
Leagues Beneath was originally released through Adult Swim as a free stream. That was just hype for the crazy HI-FI vinyl pressing which came in both aqua colored vinyl limited to 1000 copies or a black LP. The song clocks in around 17 minutes filling one side of the best pressed 12” record out there.
Sleep expands with each release. Leagues Beneath EP feels like it could be the lost closing track from ‘The Sciences’ the studio full-length released earlier in 2018. Sleep’s return after a 15 years in other projects (OM, High on Fire, Neurosis) SLEEP IS BACK!!!
Sleep Leagues Beneath
Article by: Temple Rose
Thank you so much and yes we do all need psychedelic rock acid folk music in 2021 we need more hippies in our world. Peace n love brother.
Very informative!!! Thanks my friend, can’t wait wait until the next one!!! Much love from dmtworld.net!!!