It’s been a long time since I’ve done a “Songs I Love” post (the last one was February 26th, 2008, and before that it was December 17th, 2007!). My apologies for that.
I have traditionally posted music from 1980s artists in these posts, and I’ve done that for two reasons: one, because I grew up in the 80s, and that’s the music I like; and two, because some tiny part of me thinks that the Music Police only bust people who post new music.
They won’t care about some middle-aged guy posting an ancient Tubeway Army track on an obscure blog somewhere… but post the latest Justin Timberlake track, and here come the guys with handcuffs! It’s silly, I know… but I just can’t help it. Fortunately, I’ve found a brand new band good enough to make me overcome this fear.
They’re called “Our Sleepless Forest”. They’re a bunch of young guys from South London (many Internet posts about them talk about how they’re barely of legal drinking age in the UK, which is 18). And the music they make is simply amazing. It grabs your attention in an instant, and holds it there until they’re done with you. As I’ve said many times before on this blog, I’m not someone that can experience “love at first listen” with most bands. I usually have to listen to things over and over before I really start liking them. Even with a song I really like (say, Tiesto’s remix of Paul Oakenfold’s “Southern Sun”), I start with “that’s pretty interesting”, then move on to “huh – not bad”, then go to “hey, I like this!” to finally, “I love this!” (In the case of “Southern Sun”, it took hours to finally reach the “love it” stage, since the song is over 9 minutes long). With Our Sleepless Forest, I has able to skip all those levels and fall instantly in love!
The music is not for everyone, however. It sounds like… well, imagine what an instrumental This Mortal Coil song would sound like on acid. There’s plenty of gentle acoustic guitar, delicate synths, and sound effects that could sound out of place, but (surprisingly) don’t. Above all, there’s an unbelievable amount of sheer beauty in their music. Imagine the soundtrack to your most beautiful dream, and that’s what Our Sleepless Forest sounds like. It’s my favorite new album of the year (by far), and I can see myself as a “Sleepless Fan” for some time to come. Have a listen and tell me what you think:
[audio:forest.mp3]