#180: Introducing...Elastic Sleep

The 1990s was a brilliant time for music with many genres coming in to their own or starting, particularly through the decade's first few years. Of course, grunge found itself at the forefront of the world's attention, whilst smaller genres snuck in behind it. Two such genres were shoegaze, and twee-pop, who both found their footing during the decade and were popularised by band's such as My Bloody Valentine and Heavenly respectively. And whilst both genres are still enjoying relative popularity, at least within their individual scenes, it goes without saying that an amalgamation of the two would inevitably occur, giving birth to dream-pop, a genre taking the laid back almost lazy vocals of twee and fusing them with the less abrasive but no less encompassing instrumentation of shoegaze.

Even though dream-pop isn't exactly enjoying the same amount of popularity of as other genres at the moment, there's still a fair amount of artists, both signed and otherwise, creating the same kind of sonic texturing that transcends your usual alternative rock. One such band, Cork's Elastic Sleep, are more than embracing the genre's lo-fi tendencies, they've absorbed themselves in them.

'Anywhere', the one, tantalising track that the band have uploaded is a perfect example of what makes the genre so irresistible. Ephemeral, breathy vocals perpetuate the hook line “You could be anywhere” throughout the course of the tracks 2 and a quarter minutes; the vocal simplicity is it's beauty and the use of a female vocalist keeps it feeling genuine, there's just something about the timbre of a female vocal that lends itself to the genre so willingly and can probably be attributed to the twee influences that bleed through in to every dream-pop band.

Whilst the vocals are understated and simple, the music on which the vocals paint is far from it. A turbulent canvas of sonic evisceration, the juxtaposition of vocal and instrumentation is as blatant as it could be jarring, should one go in to this not knowing what to expect. It's exciting whilst verging on the violent, all the while at the same time being melodic and inviting, like the metaphorical carrot dangling from a stick, 'Anywhere' leaves us clamouring for more. It's obvious that Elastic Sleep are a band with raw, untapped talent. This, when coupled with their understanding of musical composition makes for fantastic listening and gives one a feeling that this is just the tip of the iceberg, a brief introduction to the band and their idiosyncrasies before they show what their really capable of.

This review was originally written for Ears On, click here to check their site out.