sleepersound
"Idle Voices" OUT NOW
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"The band has an album coming out in August that I love" -Bob Boilen, NPR
“‘Idle Voices’ is a swirling night sky delight, starting off slowly and swelling through waves of violent beauty and sudden dramatic transitions of musical power, occasional landing on a crisp, brisk polyrhythmic anthem. It’s widescreen and windswept, its six meditative tracks based around sweet-vibes vocals and lushly played art-soul instrumentals...”-Psychedelic Baby Magazine
"Sleepersound’s new record, Idle Voices, is the kind of hazy, atmospheric, and impeccably lovely record that’s perfect for the dog days of summer. Opener “Silence Otherwise” unfolds and evolves like a dream, the cinematic (and instrumental) title track plays like an indie-rock tribute to Blade Runner, and “The Nightingale” ends things on a haunting note.” -Milwaukee Record
"The band shifts from pensive post rock to lullaby-like synth interludes to urgent post punk to dramatic art rock ballads with the same conviction and skill. ... There are some vague points of reference (Radiohead, Sleeping at Last, Unwed Sailor), but they’re a poor descriptor for Sleepersound’s sound—as evidenced by the fact that the three bands I mentioned sound nothing alike" -TUNED UP
"Idle Voices, the new album from Sleepersound, is a masterful blend of ambient, noise rock, and indie wrapped in a nice post-rock package. It’s a great effort from one of the more creative bands in the genre." -GetAlternative.com
Sleepersound’s new album “Idle Voices” is a swirling night sky delight, starting off slowly and swelling through waves of violent beauty and sudden dramatic transitions of musical power, occasional landing on a crisp, brisk polyrhythmic anthem. It’s widescreen and windswept, its six meditative tracks based around sweet-vibes vocals and lushly played art-soul instrumentals.
“Idle Voices” is a supremely elegant follow-up to their previous “In Medias Res” which was rated 8/10 and reviewed by OUTBURN Magazine as “drenched in the mechanics of American work song as they are submerged with ambient evocations and early 70s Germanic rhythms.” RNR Globe declared that “without any hyperbole, they are creating a new sound.”
Self-produced and mixed by engineer and mixed by drummer Dan Niedziejko at his home studio Indian Not the Arrow between 2019 and 2021 and mastered by distinctive sound craftsman KRAMER (and Noise Miami) the band’s second full-length is a mindful exercise of finding truthful calm in the massive din of plague, political subterfuge, and natural disaster.
Describing the second-full length’s theme from this Chicago to Milwaukee by way of St. Louis, MO band, Dave D’Antonio (vocals, guitars, keyboards), “For me this is deeply related to my own journey of breaking out of the noise, movements, and congestion of day-to-day life (noises uttered in the form of idle voices), rising above the status quo and trying to see something beneath the service. You can’t look from the outside if you yourself are a part of the infrastructure.”
Niedziejko adds, “I always looked at this material as our own little struggle to keep making progress on an album and body of work amidst some of the craziest times we’ve ever damn well lived through. We didn’t stay idle, and I think a lot of people were pushing to keep moving and be heard in their own ways …”
Adding the vocals, guitars, and keyboards of Kenny Buesing, “this album represents a lot of reflection and growth that only comes out of friction,” bassist and keyboardist Mike Campise says. “Usually it starts with a nugget of tune or some interesting rhythm and we go from there. Our songs are rarely written and delivered as a finished tune by one member. It’s the most collaborative band I ever worked in.”
The gently swinging and pendant penultimate track “Blossom” (“Aurora borealis / Emanating from your eyes / Exuding spring blossoms / Waves of pink and magenta scatter the whole sky”) (7:03), and the gently hovering and shimmering, crepuscular “Innamorata” (6:52) are long but not languid key tracks for “Idle Voices,” showing the best of the record at both ends.
“This one is very different in some ways,” Niedziejko says. “There is more diversity in one track to the next. I think it’s very much a product of the turbulent times we’re living in.” The band is anxious to find more fans who appreciate the incredible amount of creativity they put into all levels of their writing, recording, and presentation. Flexing their sound as expansively for “Idle Voices” should certainly help them connect with lovers of post-punk, prog, rock, and other genres from many corners.
The band also has another member in the visual design of Stephen Vincent Anderson. Getting prepared for playing out again, “visuals are a part of our live shows - Stephen mixes video loops like a sound engineer mixes guitars and synths, with fade ins and panning. Examples of this are on our YouTube page. The pandemic has been tough because it's difficult to reproduce a band being projected onto with Zoom sessions. We are looking forward to playing live again so that we can actually stage the projections and visuals in a room that is darkened and the way it's really intended.
“We are itching to play shows as soon as we all get a jab and can do it safely,” Niedziejko enthuses.
PRESS
NPR – All Songs Considered
The Big Takeover
RAZORCAKE
Psychedelic Baby Magazine
Milwaukee Record
MUSOSCRIBE
Breaking & Entering
TUNED UP
GetAlternative.com
Radio Drill Time – WMSE August 12
Jersey Beat
Outburn Magazine
Substream Magazine
Rock and Roll Globe Feature
Hype Machine
Jammerzine
blog.musoscribe.com
Breaking and Entering
Backseat Mafia
Shepherd Express
Isthmus
WMSE
Independent Clauses
Tilleys Music Guidance