Sleep Party People, the band with the trademark bunny mask, is back with his melancholic dreampop and warm vibe.
Sleep Party People is the creation of Brian Batz, a multi-instrumentalist musician who started recording in his Copenhagen apartment, inspired by the sound of Boards Of Canada and Angelo Badalamenti. The live band is a quintet and together on stage they wear rabbit masks and they play a pretty unique blend of electronic and shoegaze sound.
After the self titled album (2010) and We Were Drifting on a Sad Song (2012), Brian Batz is going to release the third album, Floating, via the label Blood & Biscuits. The new album has in it even a 60s psychedelic rock sound that it's something new and gives a new touch to the all composition.
Floating is a journey into an imaginary place and listening to the nine tracks together with closed eyes is like seeing an ethereal world made of overturned towns, verdant valleys and transparent lakes. It's a fabulous world and Floating will literally let you float over the clouds and each note will paint a piece of the landscape. Emphasizing the melody, the vocals help the listener to recognize the details of the view working as a binoculars with colored filters that change together with the music.
I have to admit that the opener 'Change In Time' didn't conquer me when I started listening to the record and I was a bit disappointed considering that I was quite excited about this album. But on listening to the whole album, I found it a nice way to start the journey. It's pretty soft and it hasn't a strong character and, together with 'Floating Blood Of Mine', it signs the moment when you leave the real world and you cross a tunnel made of dense clouds that don't let you see what's around you.
If the intro is not remarkable, everything changes with 'In Another World' were the atypical vocals of Brian Batz leads you into an emotional blend of sounds going from dreamy-pop to tub-thumping electro. I particularly like the following instrumental track 'Death Is The Future' that, despite the title, has a positive vibe and really keeps you on the move. Together these tracks might be one of the best moments of the album. I'm not able to define the music genre of these two songs, to be honest, and this is a good thing. I find in 'Death Is The Future' also something exotic. The rhythm is pursuing, shots of the imaginary world run in front of you so fast that you can see them for few seconds only. The whole experience is great.
'I See The Sun, Harold' and 'I See The Moon', featuring Lisa Light, is where the delicate piano notes that gently dissolve one after the other one are accompanied by elements of a typical 60s psychedelic rock sound. The two tracks are something different from the other tunes of the records; they are the soundtrack of those moments where the listener, even if for a while, stops floating looking around them. The imaginary world of Sleep Party People is not running anymore and you can walk among its fantastic creatures. the Danish musician surprises us again. There is a lot to admire about the myriad of uncertainty and unpredictability of Floating.
The delicate melancholic piano melody of 'Only A Shadow' brings me to the Brian Batz's style I already know and that I always appreciate while the closing 'Scattered Glass' is a mixture of dynamic lullabies that permeate every space.
Floating doesn't reach the depth of previous songs like 'Heaven Is Above Us' or the cinematic rhythm and unique intangible sounds of 'Chin' that are among my favourite compositions from Sleep Party People but, the repeated reverb, the indistinguishable melody-driving vocals, the tense and dramatic inclination that Bratz demonstrates in this record, make it an enjoyable and pleasant experience. It will require more than one spinning before appreciating it completely but careful listeners will be rewarded.
