SLEEPYTIME GORILLA MUSEUM: Grand Opening and Closing

Seeland 523 CD
2001

At last! The world’s "most closed museum" presents its first exhibit to the listening public. This "museum" is actually a brilliant Bay Area super-group of sorts (including members of Idiot Flesh, Carla Kihlstedt [of Tin Hat Trio] and others) belching forth an ominous musical stew beyond easy categorization, in a netherworld someplace between early King Crimson and The Residents. Soundtracks for solitary slugs? Progressive-percussive-theatrical-toy piano-homemade instrument-doom metal?

We here at Seeland loved their taut and exciting live show so much that we suggested co-releasing their debut release with their own Chaosophy label, and the resulting album is gorgeous and thundering, tender and menacing, gargantuan yet meek, primitive yet incredibly dense. And it’s packaged in a lovely digipak with great artwork. Their website is sleepytimegorillamuseum.com.

"At moments, it’s downright terrifying....it felt like an auditory orgasm (or Armageddon depending on your constitution)." - San Francisco Bay Guardian