wandrlust – discover the undiscovered

I am extremely picky about the content I am choosing for this site, if anything I am trying to write almost specifically about things that aren’t readily found on the internet (or anywhere for that matter), curiosities that only have small mentions or blurbs on other websites — which you can find a certain amount of depth on here and here only.

Despite that fact — it’s time, mainly because I am currently at a loss in terms of what to write, to deviate from the regular type of content and write about a record that has snuck up on me and what I now view as the best and most overlooked record of 2007; The Sleeping States – There the Open Spaces.

I didn’t come across this album during 2007, I started listening to it around January, but since its first spin, it has not left any player on my computer, home, or car since. This is saying a lot for an album that is as spare and simplistic as There the Open Spaces. An evocative album of lo-fi bedroom pop, its quiet dissonance reverberates off the walls of what feels like a confessional album in responses to the alienation of city life — its people and dwellings.

A record that is as haunting as it is lovely, it very much fits the mold of a quiet, driving around at night album, despite the fact that I listen to it all the day long. The more upbeat and accessible pop numbers were the initial attraction, but the more I would listen to the album — the quiet introspective songs seemed to be the songs that would transport me, while seemingly being lost in themselves. This album evokes the same sort of resonate imagery Fennesz’s Venice seems to elicite in me. But instead of the sort of indecipherable soundscapes of that album, which create unknown feelings toward distant memories, There the Open Spaces does this through singer Markland Starkie’s nearly rapturous multi-tracked voice and simple, repetitious guitar movements. The mood and atmosphere blend aural experimentation seamlessly with direct lyrical nuance in a way that only sounds exciting on the ears (meaning I can’t write it as good as it sounds).

To put this album as my #1 of 2007, I thought for full disclosure, I would make my Top 10 list for the year for some added perspective:

1. Sleeping States – There the Open Spaces
2. Animal Collective – Strawberry Jam
3. Panda Bear – Person Pitch
4. Radiohead – In Rainbows
5. Battles – Mirrored
6. Explosions in the Sky – All of a Sudden, I Miss Everyone
7. Studio – Yearbook 1
8. Born Ruffians – S/T EP
9. Sir Richard Bishop – Polytheistic Fragments
10. Ra Ra Riot – S/T EP

I dislike writing about music, even film for that matter, mainly because of the vulnerabilities one feels when the enjoyment becomes so deep and personal — but when a group like the Sleeping States flies so low under the radar — I will come out from my cave of enjoyment and begrudgingly share it with you.

Download: Sleeping States – Rivers (Single) Mp3

Many Sleeping States tracks and videos can be found on his Myspace. Although I highly recommend seeking out the track The Next Step… or for that matter, the whole album.