Fragments

It took me a little while before I got the hang of Fragments (well, maybe not too long since I was actually still on my first listen), but it was when the third track was halfway done that I suddenly realized this was some crazy shit. I've never heard of Sleeping Village before, and when the promo sheet describes their music as a mix between My Bloody Valentine, old Type O Negative, Sonic Youth and Burzum I don't know what to believe. I mean, that sounds like one messed-up description. I'm not extremely familiar with all of said acts, but I guess it sums it up quite nicely.

My quality of being is without a doubt the greatest of the bunch. With a weird-as-hell and utterly repetitive drum pattern it lays the foundation for a droning track. It's like Thergothon met up with Nortt and did some covers of old Negura Bunget. As I said the drumming's quite unusual, the riffing is super-fizzy and the vocals just suddenly rears its ugly face and roars a little before disappearing again. To make things even stranger they throw in a couple of moments of almost post-rock psychedelia. When Bliss steps in the guitar gets even fizzier, as if that was even possible, and the drum tempo picks up. Unfortunately this is the first time I could hear it's a drum machine, which wasn't noticeable before. But I try to ignore that fact and concentrate on the marvellously insane atmosphere they produce. It takes a harsher and slightly more aggressive approach, but the outcome's still the same. And as I said it was in Out-of-the-way I realized just how crazy this is, and it's by adding a droning ambient/noise track like this I'm completely thrown off balance. I usually despise ambient music, but the utterly unsettling and creepy atmosphere compels me, and it's like Sunn O))) popped in for a visit.

It doesn't feel like the ending track carries the same kind of conviction and power like the previously mentioned ones (but by no means does it make the song bad), but the overall feeling I get from this album is just scary. I don't know how to classify it, how to judge it or even what to believe. It's such a weird listening experience, one I'd recommend to anyone who aren't afraid of a little experimentation. Try to imagine a mishmash of all the bands mentioned in this review and I think you'll come relatively close to what this is all about. Sounds weird, right? Well, it is!

Originally written for http://www.mylastchapter.net