SLEEPING PEOPLE

Not to wear out the Crimson comparison, but my favorite moments on this album involve bone crunching whole tone chord progressions over grooving odd-metered kit work that sound like off-takes from the classic Starless album. Elsewhere on this album SP gives us an Enoish electronic number on Out Dream , as well as concert hall styled guitar minimalism on Centipede Dream. Although many of the songs on here are well arranged and carry much more impact than the usual generic math ditty, at their worst some SP songs drag on with too many pointless mathematical change-ups and not enough direction.

As mentioned before, this is the math rock band that could 'break', but before any math band hits the big time they are going to have to break some of their own overly strict rules. This album would easily crossover to classic progressive rock status if there was some occasional sustained melody, and would it really kill the mathematical guitarist to break out in a solo occasionally, either melodic or fret shredding. I keep wanting to hear a Manzenera styled hook, or maybe some Jeff Beckish sustained bends that would lift this music to the next level. Someday some hot shot producer like Laswell or Eno is going to grab one of these bands and fill out their sound and make them the next big thing. Until then, Sleeping People stand at, or near, the head of the pack in this still developing genre.

General musical structures are characteristic for math rock loops-like and cool calculated, but heavy rock energetic and complex musicianship still save this work from being repetitive or boring. Comparing with their debut, this second album is really better played and finished and contains much more mature music.

One of the style most rock-fuelled albums I ever listened. I am not sure how attractive could it be for math/post rock newcomers ( I always recommend very different from US-sound Sigur Ros early albums as the best introduction), but from another hand it can be really interesting for those searching on different instrumental prog-rock with high energy.

Really 3,5.

With Sleeping People we're never quite sure where everything is headed, with disaster surely right around the corner. But the band always pulls through and delivers high-energy arithmetic, and 'Growing' is one of 2007's most riveting CDs.

"Blue Fly Green Fly" is a good uptempo song with some great bass and guitar work. The drummer has some fast hands as heard before 3 minutes. "Nasty Portion" is all over the place and quite a challenging listen. It gets better as it plays out and the Fripp-like guitar is terrific. "Fripp For Girls" features a good contrast between the crazy, fast paced passages with the more enjoyable, slower sections.

"Technically You..." is definitely a technical and annoyingly song. The Fripp-like guitar is a highlight though. "Nachos" is better as they impliment some good ideas and in that way it's quite experimental when compared to the other songs. "Johnny Dep" is my favourite track on the album. This is by far the most enjoyable song as the drums, bass and guitars all work together to make some amazing melodies. The bass stands out later. "Untitled" is a short song with the same melody as the intro of the opening song "Blue Fly Green Fly". The guitar is slowly picked.

This is a good record that could be a lot better in my opinion. Still worth checking out though if you like Math-Rock.

Also in evidence is a stiff shot of King Crimson which gives them a more varied palate, though this influence should not be over-estimated and is more conceptual than derivative; these four young musicians stand rather firmly in a mathrock camp and represent the flowering of this kinetic, sometimes frantic musical style, deceptive in its honesty and played with the passion of garage music but the contemplative brow of Prog. A real winner.