Sleep Tapes is the debut album from my homie (and former student) Spencer Wirth-Davis, aka Big Cats. It’s a mostly instrumental beat album that takes, as its title suggests, the imaginary landscapes of our own sleepy unconscious. Created over the last year or so, much of the album was made when other people themselves were sleeping. “I was making most of the material in my bedroom late at night, really quietly,” he told me, “so my neighbors wouldn’t kill me.”
Cats’ album does a great job of reflecting the mystery of the world when we fall asleep, like on the song “Hi Speed Dub,” as its fuzzed out spinet, ghostly voices, and other things that might go bump in the night are skewed just enough to place them out of everyday reality. Throughout the album, numerous little riffs and bits emerge and recede through the hazy textures, like on “Wonder Naps” and “2 Mics.” The highlight of the album is “Ballad Northwestern,” with its impossible-to-resist wordless vocals, slightly-distressed synths and addictive, yet not overpowering beat. Near the end, with the appropriately titled “New Day” and “Big World,” we start to hear the dawn, and the start of things anew.
The sounds of Sleep Tapes might remind some of old RJD2 or local sonic wizard Dosh. At points, though, the album starts to get repetitive, with similar grooves coming one after the other, while other times, Cats tries to fit in too many elements of his greatly varied sonic palette into a single song. Yet the album is full of head-nodding grooves, maybe even some to fall asleep to. Just make sure not to sleep on Big Cats.
Spencer, who performed many of the instruments on the record, will be joined by three instrumentalist friends to recreate much of Sleep Tapes at the Dinkytowner this Thursday night, as part of “Last of the Record Buyers” series. Show starts at 9pm and the price of $3 will surely be worth your while.
