Reviews and Press

Joe Muggs for Red Bull Music Academy, 'The medium is the message' article here.

Joe Muggs for The Arts Desk, 'Reinventing the record: strange new formats of the digital age�
(full article here):

Very different but similiarly coherent in its aesthetic is the gorgeous The Brambles in Starlight mini-album (pictured right) by Sleeps in Oysters. �Homespun� is an overused adjective for quirky or idiosyncratic sounds, but in this case it perfectly suits the band's ultra-psychedelic and introspective folky electronic songs, which they have released on an edition of 150 dinky 3� CDs wrapped in entire balls of wool hand-spun from raw fleece by the duo themselves. Their full-length album Lo is no less elaborately put together, giving purchasers a choice of buying the CD with hand-illustrated insert or animal mask and embroidery kit. There are plenty of dilettante artists doing this sort of thing and coming over as nothing but horrendously twee � but with a project like Sleeps in Oysters, the absolute dedication to expressing something fundamental to them through every aspect of the package shines through. It's neither archaic nor futuristic, but expressive of something highly individualistic that feels a little outside of the normal flow of time.

Richard Allen for The Silent Ballet, review of Lo!:

And Lo! There was Lo! And it was good. And on the seventh day, God couldn't rest, because he was playing it all day, and the trees of the fields were clapping their hands. I guess that's where the trouble started...That's how it is with these people, you invite them into your house, and soon they're making demands, and you'll do anything you can to keep them, to hear their sweet, sad voices in the floorbeams, to eat the edges of their notes and to hope that more will grow back, like the arms of a starfish.

Clash Magazine on John Oyster's Heliaster mix of Lo!

A multi-layered treasure trove of mind-altering sounds and songs... SiO are a psych-folk act in the truest and most classic sense of the term, creating dreamy-yet-powerful electronic folk (to use the bland �folktronica� tag would be to do the duo an injustice) that is in equal parts warm, frightening, articulate and above all beautiful...An avant-garde sensory delight, full of rich textures and layered, storytelling lyrics.

Boomkat review of Lo!:

Deftly woven fusions of freak-folk pop, IDM electronica and electroacoustic collaging from Seed Records' precious duo, Sleeps In Oysters. 'Lo!' courses a vivid narrative through endearingly twee and kaleidoscopic arrangements of music box melody, sampladelic texturing, AFX-ian quirks and Bj�rk-ian quarks, all suffused with tender vocals and an ever shifting patina of layered electronic instrumentation. It's a diverse and potently psychedelic experience in the right circumstances and warmly tipped for fans of Daedelus or Bibio.

Reviews Archive: The Brambles in Starlight

A macabre Grimm's fairy tale brought to sonic life.
Textura

Sleeps in Oysters is not tied to convention, and the duo's lack of traditional propriety polka-dots their output. In a thrift shoppe of sonic possibility, they rescue the cast-off and invigorate the drab...On the basis of this EP, Lo! (forthcoming full-length album, Spring 2011) should be one of the new year's stunners.
The Silent Ballet

Extraordinary freak-folk electronics. This delightful, all enveloping five track EP is set to kiss those ears that hear it. Brush you down with collaged noise, sweet vocals, fluttering drums and Broadcast-like pop hooks.
Bleep

Reviews Archive:We kept the memories locked away in matchboxes like the beetles of our childhood, or How to appreciate someone who's always around

Wonderful, multilayered folktronica�This is a record you'll want to keep and play for a long time.
5/5 Experimental Record of the month, Mixmag

A beautiful, beautiful little thing
Stuart Maconie, 6 Music

Vivid electro-acoustic pop, beautifully recorded...the most joyous of post-Aphex/Bjork musical nuances that gently fizz and crackle
Warp

A refined treasure chest of sunshine and birds in trees and glowing arcs of light and most of all glorious songs...So much musical treasure and so much delicate colour to be found here, a beautiful treat of an album, a wonderful album.
Album of the week, Organ

Post-Aphex beauty
Plan B

An arresting presentation for a mini-album's worth of tunes that are just as arresting...Anchored by the whirr and click of combustible breakbeat fireworks, Sleeps In Oysters excels at creating electronic pop that's been shattered into pieces and then screwed back together using glue, tape, screws, and bolts, with all of it served up with infectious energy and child-like glee
Textura

Avant folktronica...admirably adventurous
Time Out

Freak-folk electronics...Link of the Day
The Wire

Shimmering little vignettes...a wonderfully poetic and delicate record, made by people who have a rare flair for the unusual.
4.6/5, The Milk Factory

A glowing, introspective debut
Xlr8r

Sleeps In Oysters arrive with no small measure of eccentricity...far more adventurous and intriguing than the overwhelming majority of the folktronica material currently out there
Boomkat

Imagine in your head the sounds that you would hear if Aphex Twin decided to make music to accompany an afternoon tea party for the Women's Institute...This is music for listening, reflecting and for enjoying with a cup of tea. Or whilst smoking a cigarette in post coital silence. Sad, dreamy and just plain old 'nice'.
Electronic Beats

Beautiful wistful vocals and well crafted songs which don't follow a traditional route
Norman Records

While Sleeps In Oysters inhabit a vaguely similar region to that of, say, Nurse With Wound and Current 93, their output is as accessible as that of Syd's Pink Floyd and the Another Green World-period Eno. Yet such comparisons don't do justice to the inherent originality of what might come to be regarded as a classic
Rock & Reel

A glittering example of a debut done right
The Silent Ballet