Sleeping States

You Should Know


Sleeping States is the moniker of UK musician Markland Starkie, who melds found sounds like chirping birds and hissing tea-kettles with a dreamy lo-fi singer-songwriter aesthetic. On his latest album In The Gardens Of the North, Starkie combines his woozy melodies with layers of hypnotic drums and organic instrumentation. On the particularly noteworthy "Gardens Of The South," Starkie does his best doo-wop impression but it's doo-wop by way of codeine overdose, as if it were some askew musical nod to a scene from American Grafitti, as David Lynch would have directed it. Starkie's voice is oddly haunting and it quivers with ghostly affectation over lush arrangements that invoke images of fog-covered landscapes and vine-entangled cottages. The imagery is fitting. Starkie recorded the album in a Bristol shack in the woods, and you can imagine him toiling away endlessly with found sounds and instruments. The labor has paid off. The Gardens Of The North is an articulate and texturally stunning mish-mash of genres and pushes conventional songwriting into a strange and exciting new realm. -- Capt. Obvious

Listen:
MP3: Sleeping States - Gardens Of The South (from In The Gardens Of The North)
MP3: Sleeping States - Rivers (from There The Open Spaces)

Tags: Sleeping States, In The Gardens Of The North