Nadeem Salaam
Photo By: Josh Parra
Sleeping Lion | Patient Creature EP Premiere
Sleeping Lion are an alt-electro duo that are out with their latest EP Patient Creature. After members Nate Flaks and Noah Longworth McGuire formed the group in the Spring of 2015, the pair have been crafting away like modern day sculptors do. The first Sleeping Lion songs were written and produced remotely via Skype the following summer while Nate was living in New York and Noah was living in Rome; in the fall, the two came together in Boston to record the majority of their latest EP in Quincy, MA.
Photo By: Josh Parra
I’m in awe of many things, for starters: how an imagery of distance fuses across their sonic tonality, is beyond a subtly they could have premeditated. Rather, it oozes out mellifluously onto silvery synths and lilting harmonies. Patient Creature follows a palate of carefully crafted tones–often complimenting one another–from thumping vintage Roland kick & snare, to expansive and buzzing bright synths, this body of work could only be made better with the fine and pure vocal quality of the duo, this rhapsodic human element Flaks and McGuire lend to their modern electronic sound, amalgamates the power and precision of production with the very real rawness of what can only be felt. Title track “You Made Me” accounts the risks of love: that one cannot choose to love and avoid the sea of vulnerability that will cast you out–sails drawn. When I hear the quivering falsetto, it all comes together, there is a writer here and you’re going to feel what he has felt.
Live, Sleeping Lion have a simple setup that brings the detail and life found on Patient Creature along with them. “By Now” is another stand out track, with some jazz flourishes featuring some riotous saxophone playing, coupled with an anthemic high, made for an encore moment this band could ride into the night like a flash of lighting. The most mature of the bunch, it almost has one foot in the record and one foot in the future.
Photo By: Josh Parra
“Morning Coffee” may evoke the cold and fog, as the band lean a bit in U.K. trip hop realm, the rhythm section here pushing the song, the heartbreak and good sex to follow, make it one of the most passionate and beautiful songs in the bunch. While closing with “Rug,” by now the arpeggiations and sweeping sounds keep you eager to start the process all over, this number closes out with a string section that’s sure to pull some heart strings. Overall the process of electronic writing, producing, and performing, often falls short of credit where credit is due. After all, they’re doing more, learning more, and presenting more than the plug-in-and-play dynamic. Often one is wearing a producer, engineer, and performer hat, and the amount of holistic growth, and attention to nuance in this intersectionality in modern music is incredibly arduous. Kenna and James Blake are no one trick pony either and Sleeping Lion’s esthetic can be felt from top to bottom. I think it’s why this record feels so personal, I too tire of indie pop without soul, on Patient Creature, I feel the voice of a writer and appreciate the attention to detail all the while and every time I’ve had it on repeat.
For now their upcoming tour dates stay close to home with a few home shows for August, with two events at Berklee’s Red Room that look exciting, but be sure when they tour NY we’ll let you know; if you’d like, keep in touch and follow them on their Facebook page and on Twitter for the latest, and pick up a copy of Patient Creature out on iTunes now / streaming on Spotify.
Official // Sleeping Lion