Sleepy Cheese is the enigmatic new project of a guy who calls himself Sky Traceable and, aside from that information, remains ironically off the map. In contrast to the silliness of the name, Sleepy Cheese’s gloomy, slow doom rock feels pretty momentous.
The tag for the THANK GOD IT HURTS EP on Soundcloud is “BEDROOM”, which is certainly appropriate to Traceable’s fuzzy lo-fi sounds. This is angst-glazed sludge that takes its time, with molten guitar lines and crashing percussion, and Traceable’s voice all but melts under the weight of his frustration so that the words themselves signify less than the intonation of his muffled growl. It’s seeping with anger for sure—each track swings between an aggressive guitar line and vocals that mount in energy. On “Credit Card”, Traceable sings, “I’ve got a credit card, I tear my fucking face off.” The line is darkly laughable, but the desperation is clear.
The “bedroom” term might apply even better to the intimacy of these tracks. Traceable said of the EP, “Cast forth from his parents’ basement and wallowing in self-pity after a traumatic breakup, these songs were born from darkness.” Voicemail messages from ex-friends or ex-lovers trace an explicit narrative of failure on the narrator’s part to maintain relationships or boundaries, giving the frustrated crunch of the music renewed meaning. Insofar as it’s wallowing, the record still maintains an awareness that comes through in its self-deprecation: rather than distorting the voices that condemn him, Traceable lets them sit, in all their heaviness, uncomfortably between the songs. As little as it reveals about the identity behind the alias, the EP is a powerful emotional exposé.
THANK GOD IT HURTS will be out on cassette this Halloween from Forged Artifacts. You can stream the full EP below.
