Released: May 10, 2005
Genre: Rock
Number Of Tracks: 15
With contributions from musician friends and production by Terry Date (Deftones) and Ross Robinson (Cure, Slipknot, Limp Bizkit), Team Sleep's ethereal debut album builds a new fan base for a fresh new band.
Featured review by:
toyboxmonster, on april 17, 2009 1 of 1 people found this review helpful
Sound: Like numerous other art-rock/experimental rock acts (The Sound of Animals Fighting, Animal Collective), Team Sleep cannot be said to gave a single sound. Rather, they have numerous different faces, drawing from a vast array of influences ranging from ambient music and minimalist to straight-up alternative rock and even hip-hop. This band is difficult to classify into a single genre; their sound is roo concrete to be dream pop, too diverse to be post-rock, and too mature to fit into the current indie rock scene. Their sound is an amalgam of different genres to have emerged from the alternative rock umbrella, sometimes relying on gentle shoegazer-style guitar arangements, other times turning to fragmented minimalism, and sometimes crafting solid, accessible pop songs. A far cry from Chino Moreno's nu-metal dayjob, the Deftones, Team Sleep is a group which shows the same concern for texture and ambience, but which refrains from the heavy riffing and power chords that are associated with the Deftones. Team Sleep's sheer versatility is both it's strength and it's weakness, as it prevents them from creating something as concise and cohesive as material by similar bands. // 7
Lyrics and Singing: It's difficult to discuss the lyrical and vocal aspects of this album, as more than one singer is involved and more than one style is used. For the most part, Team Sleep's lyrics are typical Chino Moreno: abstract but concise, emotive, but never corny or cliche. Lyrically and vocally, Team Sleep seems to be there to give Moreno a chance to wander down musical avenues that, until Saturday Night Wrist, he was unable to explore with the Deftones. Tracks which do not feature Moreno on vocals tend to feel somewhat detached from the main body of sound and often take away from the unity this album could potentially have featured. // 10
Impression: This release isn't so much a studio album as it is a compilation: it is a collection of songs that were written over a long period of time and of remastered versions of old tracks. This is an album with many radically different highlights, from the soft, shoegaze-inspired pop of "Ever" and "Your Skull Is Red" to the hypnotic minimalism of "Tomb Of Liegia" and the strange hip-hop inspired "King Diamond". It isn't so much the case that this album is bad; rather, it's simply that it isn't an album. Seen as a compilation or a collective, Team Sleep's self-titled album is a quality release, exploring different genres and experimenting with different techniques. With 14 tracks and a total length of just under 55 minutes, this is definitely an album that could use a little tightening up. Any material that this band releases in the future could benefit from a more selective editing process. This is a band that has created it's own unique take on the post-rock and general experimental genres, but whose inexperience with the genres resulted in a slightly confused end product. // 7
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danielreid, on may 10, 2005 0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Sound: This CD has been talked about for years, and has been squeduled for release so many times over the last 4 years that some thought it would never come out. After an album of demos leaked onto the internet years ago, people realised how brilliant this would be if these demos were finilized. But what was rapidly becoming a dream to interested fans finally became a reality this year, when its final release date was set, and Team Sleep finally released their self-titled debut album.
If you look at the work of the band members that make up Team Sleep, it's hard to imagine that this wouldn't be a fantastic CD. Non-suprisingly, it IS fantastic and not only for fans of Deftones. While this album does sound like a chilled out Deftones in some tracks ("Your Skull Is Red," "Blvd. Nights") don't expect to be moshing to this CD in your bedroom, kicking your side-table about all the way through. Team Sleep have managed to keep a balance of clean/distored guitars, programmed/live drums and sampled sounds throughout this record to create various styles and genres that all complement each other, and managed to make it their own personal sound.
This record sounds exactly like you would imagine if you really thought about the band members and what they do best, or another way to think of it is to imagine musical perfection got it? Got Team Sleep? // 10
Lyrics and Singing: I can't really complain at all about the lyrics, they are all superbly put together. However I do feel the use of Rob Crow was a little over the top. He has a great voice and there are obviously some parts on the album where Rob does a fantastic job and I feel they made the right choice to have him sing these parts, but there are also some parts I would have rather heard Chino. I'm sure I will warm towards Rob more the more I listen to this record. // 10
Impression: The only CD worthy of comparison with this amazing record would have to be the leaked Team Sleep album of demos. The leaked album showed us how promising this band would be if given a proper chance to show what they can do, its production was dodgy and the songs hadn't properly formed to become all they could. The official release does everything the demos were lacking, especially taking the best unfinished songs from the demos and forming them correctly to acheive perfection. A prime example of this is Ever, formally Foreign Flag, formally Cambodia. As one of my favorites from the leak I was pleased it had been included, but even more pleased when I heard the amazng changed made to it. This is also true with the other songs that appeared in the leak and have been rerecorded for the album. The most impressive songs from the album are Ever, Our Ride To The Rectory and 11/11. If this album were lost I would have to buy a new one ASAP. // 10
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