Review Summary: While it shows some amazing promise Songs For Sleepy is ultimately a release with no clear identity, caught in the riptide of alternating currents and trying to go with the flow
Judging a book by its cover has proven time and time again how unrewarding of a task it can be, but I'll still admit to going into
Songs For Sleepy with certain expectations. Expectations based of course not only on the cover, but also on the name of the project. A cold, rain-streaked night where the streetlights seem to move and flicker of their own accord and all our words our chocked by the frigid temperature, well I guess I expected a kind of solace or comfort, like a warm blanket draped over me to combat the natural forces. And in all fairness all that emotional stuff is present in spades, at least initially. But
Songs For Sleepy very much seems like like the work of two people, or to be more specific, a collision of two very distinctly different styles that when applied together end up working against each other. There's a line running straight through this release but it's not a straight line; it's jagged and rough, it rises and falls as if someone was scissor cutting the very essence of this album out of the picture.
It's somewhat of a shame to hear something with such promise having the life choked out of it so quickly yet so efficiently. While 'blahblahblah' starts off in such a serene fashion with its delicate guitar picking and the muffled chorus of ghosts crying out in a silenced prayer, the track finds its light snuffed out when iNTRiKet drops in the now prerequisite bass wobble. It's not so much that the inclusion is obnoxious or handled innapropriately, but it also doesn't work in favor of the track; all that peace and tranquility is cleaved in two once it attempts to go supersonic. Unfourtanetly that ends up being the case for the entire ep as delicacy is replaced by intimidation, relaxation substituted for revolt. It's just hard to get a true handle on the album because the release seems unsure of what it really wants to be, juggernaut wobbler or calming reflection piece. Even on 'Skins' where the wobble essentially drives the piece it just becomes sensory overload as that hard-hitting bass forces that gently undulating backdrop so far down into the depths that it becomes impossible to follow it. However it's on the title track where this strange pairing actually starts to shine, as that visceral wobble manouevers itself with suprising efficency over the cruising liquid-like beat. But then 'Last Night' comes on and it sadly ends up being more of the same calming ambiance slowly crumbling apart as wave after wave of bass throb punches holes through its sunday afternoon laziness.
What I end up taking away from
Songs For Sleepy is that iNTRiKet is, on the one hand a very talented music producer who with a little refinement could go on to make magic, and on the other hand that he's an artist truly in love with very differing styles and is attempting to fuse them all into a singularity while not quite realizing that they just don't go together. It's not that he isn't capable enough to get the job done, it's just that they don't belong in the same room. Dubstep is a fickle genre that shifts and mutates constantly, rising and falling with various trends, constantly hiding what little original indetity it has left.
Songs For Sleepy is essentially a meeting point for these different designs, but the pairing is a head-on collision of noise and discord, it's raw and feral. There's no shy courting or awkward flirtation, these mis-matched sounds throw themselves at each other with such intensity, and somewhere in the middle of that chemical reaction sits iNTRiKet holding a microphone up like a dream catcher, trying to ensnare that discordant sound. I care deeply about the underpinnings of this release, I can't get enough of the basic beats and the backdrops. But when this ep goes from the bedroom to the nightclub it falters, and it ultimately ends up holding this back from being something truly special.
iNTRiKet is the musical project of Sputnikmusic user Jash and can be downloaded for free at intriket.bandcamp.com
