While Sleeping People are a talented group, with a secret weapon in theacrobatic drumming of Brandon Reif, the mathematical riffage and roughand tumble timekeeping strikes me as ho-hum and fairly bland. Theintricate fingerprints of Don Caballero, King Crimson, and any numberof duel guitar bands that recorded for Dischord throughout the 1990s areon clear display here.Temporary Residence Limited
In essence, this is just post-punk posturing,with the guitars fighting a noisy battle for attention. “Blue Fly GreenFly” startsthings off on a good note, sounding like a wordless Jawbox b-side.Here, guitarists Kasey Boekholt and Joileah Maddock play off of oneanother nicely, providing busy lines that manage to not suffocate therest of the song. As is the case with most of these tracks, BrandonRaif’s intricate drumming is front and center, providing the songs witha strong anchor from which to build on. But while the majority of thesesongs are expertly played, they also feel rote. Songs like “Fripp forGirls” and “Johnny Depp” rattles off a thousand finger-tapped andhammered-on riffs, creating a stuttering, awkward series of melodies.The random guitar violence is kept in check throughout by the solidrhythm section, but this is hardly enough to keep my attention for afull six minutes. To be perfectly honest, Sleeping People are not doinganything beyond paying their respects to Shudder to Think, DonCaballero, and Oxes. And therein lays the problem with Sleeping People.While other instrumental rock bands use their instrumentation createbreathtaking soundscapes and works of high drama (e.g. Explosions inthe Sky, Do Make Say Think, etc), Sleeping People’s eponymous debutjust sounds like the semi-talented band down the hall that are stilllooking for a singer.
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