Animal Collective, the Books, Vangelis, Terry Riley, Cyndi Lauper, Grandaddy, Jean Sibelius, Neil Young, Kraftwerk, Public Enemy, Crosby Stills Nash & Young, Aphex Twin, Mary Wells, Devendra Banhart, Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell, Bjork, Radiohead, Patrick Wolf, Boards of Canada, Mira Calix, The Postal Service, Air, Elliott Smith, the Knife, Fourtet, Smog, Maurice Ravel, Hot Chip, Duke Ellington, Squarepusher, Joy Division, the Flaming Lips, Joanna Newsom, Kate Bush, Autechre, Bruce Springsteen, Steve Reich, Portishead, Daft Punk, Cat Power, Joni Mitchell, Christ, Can, Venetian Snares, Claude Debussy, Big Brother & the Holding Company, The Cure, Madonna, Mu-ziq, Ornette Coleman, Luke Vibert, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Adem, the Velvet Underground, Nick Drake, LFO, Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, Jamie Lidell, Plaid, the Beach Boys, Beck, DJ Shadow, Arcade Fire, Mum, David Bowie, Sigur Ros, Pavement, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, Prince, MIA, Burial, Tiffany, Miles Davis, Stevie Wonder, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Iggy Pop/Stooges, John Coltrane, Alice Coltrane
Sounds Like
The things we did on purpose and the things that just happened.
They that sleep in oysters are a rare strange breed indeed, long-limbed children striking sparks with old clothes on young frames, and when I think of them by the cold light of a first morning coffee it is with some regret. I have become something removed, visible in the right light but always, always out of the office…And they, by now somewhere in the far north of town in a glowing lamplit room upstairs, are making electrical crackles to keep warm, stitching moths wings, spinning printed wallpaper like before. We will never see their kind again. But I have you to make these cheques out to, you have me to tell you when you should keep your damned head down. We get by. I will say Let That Be Our Legacy, not some strung-out stale smoke fantasy but the real taste of butter on brown bread, sunshine and rain at a funeral, the restless feeling at the turn of the seasons, the bus ride home from work with good music playing loud, the smile more precious than all of life. I wrote a letter to the relevant authorities to tell them that time is on our side. We sleep in oysters. We get by.
CHAPTER 2.
Slowly, then, I had come to regard them as friends, and as the heralds of some yet undefined change in the plan, my natural reticence notwithstanding. Then they were gone. A year passed, and longer, and I thought about them sometimes when the old headaches came back and my routine at the office was disrupted. But not for long. You were here for always, you said, and I determined never to make you sad by wandering too far amongst the clouds behind my eyes. Come back. Stay home. Be around, for a change.
In November, they wrote. In a child's hand, the letter said:
"We made this for you."
“We kept the memories locked away like the beetles of our childhood, or How to appreciate someone who’s always around”
Limited edition mini-album CD and 5 bespoke postcards parcelled in paper, tied with string and sealed with wax, housed in handmade fabric sleeves, lovingly embroidered and individually numbered. Physical edition contains bonus track, ‘The birds, the bees, the bells and Richard Brautigan’ not available as an MP3 download. Released 24 November 08, 250 copies worldwide.
"Wonderful, multilayered folktronica…This is a record you'll want to keep and play for a long time." 5/5 Experimental Tune of the month - Mixmag
"A beautiful, beautiful little thing" - Stuart Maconie, 6 Music
"Vivid electro-acoustic pop, beautifully recorded...the most joyous of post-Aphex/Bjork musical nuances that gently fizz and crackle" - Warp
"A refined treasure chest of sunshine and birds in trees and glowing arcs of light and most of all glorious songs...So much musical treasure and so much delicate colour to be found here, a beautiful treat of an album, a wonderful album." Album of the week - Organ
"Post-Aphex beauty" - Plan B
"An arresting presentation for a mini-album's worth of tunes that are just as arresting...Anchored by the whirr and click of combustible breakbeat fireworks, Sleeps In Oysters excels at creating electronic pop that's been shattered into pieces and then screwed back together using glue, tape, screws, and bolts, with all of it served up with infectious energy and child-like glee" - Textura
"Avant folktronica...admirably adventurous" - Time Out
"Freak-folk electronics...Link of the Day" - The Wire
"Shimmering little vignettes...a wonderfully poetic and delicate record, made by people who have a rare flair for the unusual. 4.6/5" - The Milk Factory
"A glowing, introspective debut" - Xlr8r
"Sleeps In Oysters arrive with no small measure of eccentricity...far more adventurous and intriguing than the overwhelming majority of the folktronica material currently out there" - Boomkat
"Imagine in your head the sounds that you would hear if Aphex Twin decided to make music to accompany an afternoon tea party for the Women's Institute...This is music for listening, reflecting and for enjoying with a cup of tea. Or whilst smoking a cigarette in post coital silence. Sad, dreamy and just plain old 'nice'." - Electronic Beats
"Beautiful wistful vocals and well crafted songs which don't follow a traditional route" - Norman Records
"While Sleeps In Oysters inhabit a vaguely similar region to that of, say, Nurse With Wound and Current 93, their output is as accessible as that of Syd's Pink Floyd and the Another Green World-period Eno. Yet such comparisons don't do justice to the inherent originality of what might come to be regarded as a classic" - Rock & Reel
"A glittering example of a debut done right" - The Silent Ballet
Physical edition SOLD OUT at Seed, Warpmart, Norman Records, Juno and Boomkat. A very few copies still available at Rough Trade, Piccadilly Records and one or two other good places across the globe.
6 track download version available now at:
Please also check out the other fine releases available from Seed Records
Lustrous Chemistry’s Sleeps in Oysters 'How to' Video:
Show GS019 of Global Soundtracks features the Sleeps In Oysters' track "The Birds, The Bees, The Bells and Richard Brautigan (Remix)." Click on the image below to check it out:
