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Arms and Sleepers
Other
Cambridge, MA -
Doldrums
Date and Time
Saturday, November 12th, 2011
8:00pm
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Age Limit
21+
Details
Arms and Sleepers + Doldrums
Arms and Sleepers is the indie/electronic duo of Max Lewis and Mirza Ramic. Formed during the summer of 2006 in Boston, Massachusetts, the band has produced 11 releases and has toured extensively throughout North America, Europe and the UK. With each release, Arms and Sleepers have explored a different approach to the compositional process, ignoring musical genres and its creative limitations. With an impressive output (11 albums and EPs in just 4 years) and consistent touring, Arms and Sleepers have positioned themselves at the forefront of cinematic, experimental underground scene. Following their debut release bliss was it in that dawn to be alive (2006), which was marked by electronica and IDM influences, Arms and Sleepers went on to release the highly-praised debut full-length album Black Paris 86 (2007) on Expect Candy. This record showcased elements of trip-hop, glitch and ambient styles while maintaining its own unique voice with touches of pop and jazz. Their second full-length album, Matador (2009), picked up right where Black Paris 86 left off, but this time with more precision, focus and numerous guest appearances. The record featured vocals much more prominently than its predecessor, including contributions from Tom Brosseau (Fat Cat Records), Shelley Short (Hush Records) and Ben Shepard (of Uzi & Ari, Own Records). Rock Sound gave Matador an 8/10, stating, "Duo Max Lewis and Mirza Ramic combine a small army of electronic scratches and crackles with diverse instruments to create a ruminative and sedate album." Following up on the success of Matador and support tours with Uzi & Ari in Europe and Caspian in North America, the band released Matador Remixed (2010) as a limited edition vinyl, and toured Europe once again in the spring of 2010, including festival appearances at Berlin's Friction Festival and Leipzig's Pop Up Festival. Currently, Arms and Sleepers are planning 6 releases for 2011, including the third official full-length album to be released on Expect Candy in April.
Doldrums
Within the song "What's It Worth," Doldrums' Arick Woodhead makes an atmosphere that's mostly wholesome, something that could have come off of an old Saturday Evening Post magazine cover. He sings, "Guess we're staying in all winter," and there could be chestnuts roasting on an open fire, the smoke from the wood filling the room and making you want to put a stew on, devour some books and write letters to old friends. The song though, like the standard Doldrums output, is not what it seems. The song features dust cracklings and backbeats that connect with the wavy and shorting out synthesized dramatics. It feels like some kind of wilderness madness setting in, the idea of being out in the barren woods to wait out the ugly weather for the rebirth of spring and suddenly recognizing that it was a bad idea and you and your compadre are ill-prepared to deal with the claustrophobia and the conditions. Now there's nothing either of you can do and you're as stuck as you could ever be. It's a settling in to a cabin fever that claims you in blood and likeness, turning its prey into unwilling subjects. Woodhead sings, "Caught you in the desolation/Caught you wide-eyed," when things have gotten interesting and the characters have gone stir crazy. The split emotions don't end there as Doldrums music tends to be all over the place, littered with contradictions and seemingly endless ebbs and flows that make you feel as if you're losing your marbles a little bit. You feel as if you need to either need to just let everything unravel, let it all go loose and fall or fight to remain stable. It seems to be a more enjoyable process to let the lights blind you, to let the white snow blind you and to accept all of the cluttered fuzziness for what it is: a way to let go, to sink into the mattress or cushions and just be a waiting animal. Words by Sean Moeller for Daytrotter.
