Live

SGM’s previous studio album was an audaciously twisted album, all raging prog, sharp corners, non-sequiturs, amusing insanity. Here, perhaps because an SGM show is a you-have-to-see-it experience, the act seems off the rails. The musical bits are slow and sludgy, there’s an excess of noodling and nothingness, in-jokes (that I’m not in on and probably you aren’t either) … there are a few coherent spots but not enough to evade the characterization of this as “self-indulgent”. Some bright spots:

2.Pounding percussion (“fast and slow”, as indicated)
3.Shamelessly Björk-style breathy vocal on a vampire lullaby of sorts
6.Heavy pounding and growling of title, “sleep is rong” that suddenly turns crunchy/delicate with Karla Kihlstedt’s voice and violin
9.Moe! Staiano sings a silly song over toy accordion
11.Entitled “Edge of the world gibberish”
14.Out of seemingly nowhere, a prog epic breaks out – long, complex, varied
16.A gentle guitar-n-cymbal ballad