The Sleeping Cliffs Archive
The Sleeping Cliffs
Decomposition
I’ve been eagerly awaiting the release of this EP from The Sleeping Cliffs, the absolutely stunning post-rock solo project of Virginia-based multi-instrumentalist, producer, and all around virtuoso Todd Glidewell.
The catalog Glidewell has built in only three years is mind-boggling. There seems to be no end in sight, either, as Decomposition represents a gorgeous and expansive new document, both of Glidewell’s seemingly limitless talents and the artistic flexibility that his nom de plume offers.
This 5-song EP comes in at just under 14 minutes, and despite its digestible run-time it feels like it has the scope of a Russian novel.
So much of what The Sleeping Cliffs does serves as a meditation on the act of composition itself, the lack of lyrics diverting your attention more carefully to the decisions Glidewell is making, the roads not taken, the art of arrangement, the rise and fall of various elements in the mix.
Witness the way “Ox Bone” offers you a tour through the musical phrases that form its backbone, and then immediately starts deconstructing them.
You won’t find many offerings in the world of instrumental music that are as sonically overpowering, as intellectually stimulating, as demanding of proper attention paid, as The Sleeping Cliffs. And Decomposition is among the best work they’ve ever published.
The Sleeping Cliffs
Business
Virginia post-rock wizard The Sleeping Cliffs is one of the most prolific, and most original, projects on our radar. Coming on the heels of two gorgeous EPs, Business is the first full-length since the mind-blowing 2024 release of The Dredges. As we’ve come to expect from Todd Glidewell, the multi-instrumentalist mastermind behind this project, the record is a gorgeous tour through his musical mind. Glidewell uses his guitars in a way that belies his competence as a drummer - at times their effect is more percussion than strings, peppering the soundscape with precision fire. At other moments, they seem to be singing. The drums, in turn, serve to propel the songs forward, but equally as often they break the momentum and cast a lyricism into the mix that knocks us for a loop. The sound here is huge, cascading waves of guitar, synth, and percussion in a sonic orgy. The effect is at times beautiful and soothing, at times frantic and angsty, and all feels a terrifically apt soundtrack for our times. “How to Win Friends and Influence People” and “Waltzing With Bears” stand out as clinics in saying a lot without the need for words.
SOUNDS LIKE: The Sleeping Cliffs is such a particular musical universe that no comparisons are perfectly instructive, but fans of Delicate Steve, Ratatat, and El Ten Eleven should find plenty to appreciate here
FAVORITE TRACK: “The Hard Thing About Hard Things” is such a mood, it puts me into a state of bliss every time it comes on. The delicious bass line, the lilting guitars, the soft bed of synths holding it all up… it’s a perfect arrangement
THREE FAVORITE MOMENTS:
The groove on “How to Win Friends and Influence People” - but particularly that last drum fill back into the theme around 2:10 when the steady foundation of the groove starts to wobble… a small detail that hits like a freight train
The howling crescendo that overtakes the mathematical interplay to kick off the final 40 seconds of “Good Advice Bad Advice”
Every time that gorgeous, twangy lead guitar speaks up in “Crossing the Chasm” like some interloper from a Western
SUPPORT THIS ARTIST
FOLLOW ON SPOTIFY
ADD ON APPLE MUSIC