Sleepy Eyes of Death
Dark Signals (1.09, Sleep Capsule)
byline: Not "Before the Dawn Heals Us" but very close.
For: M83, late era Mogwai, This Will Destroy You
Moving from Salt Lake City to Seattle I heard comments like "Seattle has the best music scene", "There are so many great bands in Seattle", "My friend is in a band in Seattle". Since my relocation I can really only say the latter is true. Everyone is in a band, everyone's friend is in a band. So, with Seattle recently being dubbed "Seattle: Music City", where is the great music? Granted this city has birthed incredible musicians, entire genres, sub genres, and Sub-Pop, but it seems as though Seattle has gone from genre defining to just trying to keep up. I found everything there was in Salt Lake but on a much bigger scale here; flannel shirted indie-folk bands, brooding post rock, hipster novelty hip hop, and of course the ever pubescent indie pop bands. I miss SLC.
Sleepy Eyes of Death, however, are a glimmer of hope. If you are familiar with the byline mentioned artists SEOD don't offer anything terribly original, but what they do they do very well. Swirling synths layered underneath mammoth crescendos numbered among some of the most memorable in recent post rock history. Like M83, SEOD create an immediate sense of urgency or danger by repeating lines of pulsating synthesizers before giving way into a soul searing cacophony of ascending chord patterns and sheer speaker destroying noise. Autotuned vocals float in and out adding to the futuristic aesthetic of Dark Signals. Also, like their french contemporaries I doubt SEOD would cringe at the word cinematic being used to describe the mood of their music. It makes sense that SEOD are all employees at Scarecrow video and probably started this band in hopes to score the remake of the robo cult classic Robot Jox or Blade Runner.
the seattle music scene died years ago. there are very few bands in seattle worth following anymore and not much of a scene at all. but these things ebb and flow. it'll be back in time.
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