Hailing from Reading, SLEEP:REPEAT‘s EP ‘Silent Prayers and Broken Treaties’ is a mash of ideas. A mash that’s nowhere near refined enough to have been put on record – it’s all very raw.
Opener ‘Nothing Left to Lose’ is a perfect example of the above – there’s just too much going on, and thanks to the poor production, none of it blends together. What you end up with is about five separate pieces of the mix that clash and leave you struggling on what to focus on. It makes you feel that their live show would be an absolute mess because of it.
It all carries on in very much the same vein; but Jonathan Oakeley’s vocals do however do act as a massive plus point for the future of this band. Despite the fact that he does have a tendency to slip out of tune, he has a strong voice and one that will only get better as time goes on.
Most of the above may seem overly harsh but there’s potential here and a lot of ideas that could see the band compared to the likes of DEAF HAVANA and YOUNG GUNS in time, but with this effort they are an extremely long way and a lot of hard work away from getting close to that.
CHRIS MARSHMAN