Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Construction Paper Rainforests

I've been listening to a two piece band out of Cincinnati, Ohio called The Sleeping Sea. The Sleeping Sea consists of Jarrod Welling-Cann who sings and plays the keyboard, guitar, & vibraphones, as well as Michael Abitz who plays percussion & vibraphones as well. Both are studying to become audio/visual engineers, but I'd rather someone sign them & keep them making music. I got my hands on their Sun Drips EP about a week ago. The self produced EP was put together in a basement in Cincinnati using a variety of instruments including a little bell piano and rice inside plastic easter eggs.


Simply put, the Sun Drips EP could be described as Unicorns meets CocoNot, on sedatives, in a boat, drifting through a rainforest. Or maybe, the prettiest soundtrack to a Disney toon that hasn't been made.


The EP is put together very well using fifties guitars, multiple vocal tracks, smashing drums and very pleasant repetition. The Sleeping Sea manages to use repetition & simplicity reminiscent of rocksteady, do-wop, & early rock 'n' roll, in an ingenious way--switching it up before one can become annoyed, & before you know it they have switched again or gone back. Another reason it works so well is a complex backdrop of nuances which include, what I can only guess, are animal sounds, hand claps, & whistling. What amazes me more is they managed to do this w/o their music sounding formulaic. The EP is recorded clearly w/ perfect transitions; each song fits perfectly. Sun Drips EP is filled w/ short dreamy tracks that make one think of animated forests & singing animals. It's like playing, cuddling, and dozing off into blue, green, & violet night.


My Favorite Track

"Mars Is A Pretty Red Dress"


Most Accessible Track

"Oh, Zebra, Come Swim!" or "Fall Eyes On Africa"


You can listen to more (or more smoothly) of The Sleeping Sea on their Last.fm or Myspace.com pages. They also have a blog. The Sleeping Sea is currently working on their next project and has added Trombonist Andrew Walker of A Pinecone to their rooster. They will be playing @ the MidPoint Music Festival 24 September.


The Sleeping Sea also has a band called Ghost in the Piano Room & both Jarrod & Michael have solo projects. Jarrod uses the moniker Sailboats and Bubbles while Michael makes music under the name Quince Vetivert.


Photo credit: © Jarrod Welling-Cann

1 comment:

  1. thanks for the suggestion! band sounds good.

    ReplyDelete