To Appreciate the Heat

Sleeping States - Rivers (edit).

when you wake up in the middle of the night in Los Angeles, there's only a few reasons. Maybe your roommate came home late again. Maybe the the cops are hanging out chirping radios in your alley again. Maybe the little skateboard fuckers are wheeling home after almost busting a nut for the first the time. One thing it never is, is rain. Except last night, when it rained quietly at four thirty a.m. Maybe it was the rarity of the moment that woke me. Regardless, I was up listening.

Unable to sleep, I put on the neew Sleeping States record (no pun or irony intended) on Misra. Turns out this was the best move I'd make all day, as the rest of it was a series of stress and disappointments. Started off great though - with the rain and a surprisingly good record out of the blue. I should've known better than to have faith in such auspicious beginnings -- they're really not my style.

So we have this guy, Markland Starkie, alone in London and making a record. I'm sure a lot of us have moved to cities and been bummed out and holed up in our hot apartments lamenting a lack of friends like we used to have. Most of us just soldier on, trying to put the best dress on that pig that money can buy. Starkie here decided to make an album instead. This was a great move him, since it's an awesome record -- perfectly capturing the lonliness of living next to millions of people you couldn't give a shit about.

for the single, the label has stripped away the opening minute of aimless guitar, a snippet that blends the first and second tracks of the album together. So instead we start out instantly with a quick acoustic guitar, some ambient electric strums and slides, and vocals. It's all low-fi, with papery oohs and ahhs in the background, and some dusty drums. It's a beautiful vocal melody, and I get lost in it.

The album, There the Open Spaces, will be out on Misra in september. He's also releasing a double a-side single in the UK on Caspian next week. Highly recommended.