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LP
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OS 045LP
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Second full-length by Bay Area musician Gabriel Ramos; Inventive darkwave with a melancholic touch. Five years after their self-titled debut in 2015, Ssleeping Desiress (OS 026LP) returns with an outstanding second album Exile House. Tapping into melancholic darkwave via 1980s British post-punk guitar worship, delicious analog synths and pulsating drums, the album unfolds like a soundtrack of city life with isolation, identity, and reconciling with one's past as central themes. Over the course of eight tracks Sleeping Desiress showcase their ability to craft "dark pop songs" that sometimes twist and turn but ultimately weave their way into your head, determined to stay there. Ramos's singular voice makes these songs shine even more, switching easily between slow introspective daydreams and upbeat anthems. Think: Glorious Din, Le Travo, and... The Cure. All songs written and recorded August 2017-January 2019 by Gabriel Ramos. Mixed and mastered by Jack Shirley at Atomic Garden Studios. Design by Atelier Brenda. Paper Collage by Gabriel Ramos.
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LP
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OS 026LP
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2018 repress, in May. While the band has gone through a few lineup changes, Ssleeping Desiress has essentially remained the brainchild of San Francisco-based Gabriel Ramos, who is the sole member on this, the band's debut album. Following the great 2012 A Voice/Sister 7", this album runs along the boundaries between minimal synth, coldwave, and electro with lyrical themes of gentrification, coping with death, artistic drive and confusion, and the ephemeral nature of relationships. Ssleeping Desiress have appeared on numerous new new wave compilations since 2011, but this album takes the project to the next level, kicking off with an echoing voice over repetitive drums and outbursts of synths and guitars before slowly moving toward a more darkwave sound on the second half of the album. Ramos started making solo recordings while living in Portland, Oregon, around 2005. The DIY drive of the city and the live shows that he hosted at his house, often of friends' bands from San Francisco, led to a growing fascination and voracious consumption of music. Ramos recalls, "I can really trace it to the first time Spector Protector played at my house and getting a tape afterwards from one of the two members, Eric Davis. That and being freshly exposed to groups like Suicide and Arthur Russell was very inspirational to begin recording music on my own, though it is something I had done fairly aimlessly since high school. I make an effort and try and change my process as much as I can (usually through collaboration) and vary the instrumentation. I try and incorporate a late '70s punk vibe, a marriage of dub and krautrock repetition and cavernous space. Definitely not always successful but that is what is usually running through my head when I create music for this band." Mastered by Michael Romanowski. Graphic design by Luis Mendoza.
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