SLEEP "Hemispheres" LP

Sleep announce their new album, Hempispheres, out digitally September 3rd via Third Man Records, and out physically October 30th. In conjunction, they release the new single, "Arrival of the Industry Ships" Hempispheres doesn't attempt to continue where 2018’s The Sciences left off. With significant new blood in the lineup, the album instead finds its own footing — distinctly in the spirit of Sleep's decades-long legacy, but sharper and more agile.

Hempispheres begins Sleep’s first mission without Matt Pike on guitar. The music and art are alive, and after the decades of obstacles that Sleep has overcome, it is time to move forward and make songs and albums. Alongside bassist and songwriter Al Cisneros, the latest incarnation of Sleep features Dale Crover on drums and Bubba Dupree on guitar. Dale has been in some serious bands, like the Melvins and Redd Kross. That Cisneros would seek him out makes sense, an almost elementary choice that probably wouldn’t raise too many eyebrows. Bubba Dupree, from the fiercely loved band Void, hailing out of Columbia, MD, is a pick that is not only completely mind-blowing, but a choice no one would have seen coming.

Cisneros had been writing demos and dying to turn them into finished tracks. When Crover passed through town on tour with the Melvins, Cisneros asked if he wanted to help build out the songs and join the band. The connection ran deep: Crover had seen Sleep live in San Francisco in the early '90s, and the early incarnation of Sleep had themselves been transformed by witnessing the Melvins' legendary 1988 "Gluey Porch Treatments" era shows. Cisneros calls Crover's drumming "...otherworldly, life changing."

For guitar, Cisneros needed someone who knew the essence and vibe of Sleep's past work, but equally important, had done their own Iommic Studies and would be working from that, bringing their own voice and ideas. Dupree came highly recommended, the first jam session nailed it: a vibe Cisneros describes as "blue sunglasses era Iommi." A planned one-off recording for a flexi disc/comic book project evolved into full band membership. The album was recorded at the Melvins' studio with longtime engineer Toshi Kasai, built from a handful of ideas worked out across a few sessions.

Dupree discovered Sleep's Holy Mountain in the mid-'90s and was floored — heavy, psychedelic, yet punk-adjacent. However, stepping into Pike's shoes weighs on him — "Matt's an icon" — but he's resolved that imitating Pike's style would be hollow. Instead, he's leaning into his own voice, determined that "Sleep's soul is still totally intact,” on display on lead single “Have Spacesuit Will Travel", which “maintains Sleep’s trademark sludgy wall of sound” (Consequence). Today's "Arrival of the Industry Ships" finds the band operating in the same vein.