Sleep ∞ Over
Forever
Hippos in Tanks
September 2011
Ambience is clearly a focal point on Sleep ∞ Over’s first LP, Forever. Stefanie Franciotti’s haunted vocals don’t even enter until she has already bathed our ears in a wash of atonal guitar streaks backed by a minimalist drumbeat. In fact, those beats tend to blend in with the sort of background noise that’s usually found on those natural sounds CDs meant to aid people in hastening sleep.
Yet, for all of its haze, Forever is not a wholly soothing record. The mechanized and reverberated beats add gravity to tracks like “Casual Diamond” and the roaring at the beginning of “Porcelain Hands” is as pacifying as a fighter jet landing in your front yard. These jarring sounds make sure that the listener pummels right back to the earth before the more ethereal sonic elements send them into the clouds.
Listen To This: In your apartment with the lights out after a rough day at work.
— Valerie Paschall is a writer from Washington D.C. Check out more of her work at DCist.com, where she currently resides as Music Editor.