A Bedroom Without Walls

There The Open Spaces
Sleeping States
Misra, 2007
4 stars 4.5 stars

Anyone who has ever tried to make music in their bedroom, no matter their ambition and/or success, will listen to this album with one phrase repeating in their head - why didn't I ever think of this. Sleeping States is London twenty-something Markland Starkie, and There The Open Spaces is the result of countless hours playing his guitar, singing, playing his guitar whilst singing, and recording in his bedroom. And bedrooms around the world are probably where most of the pressings of this album will end up - no, not in that way - because this is the perfect album to fall asleep to. Starkie's soft, sweet croon and his often crudely recorded electric folk guitar will make the most cupboardish of rooms feel a hundred miles wide. The way centrepiece Contact Lunacy comes together is nothing short of breathtaking, and I Wonder takes a great kraut-ish groove and turns it into one of the nicest folk-pop songs I've heard for ages. But it's the details - bumps, clicks and ambient bedroom noise that flicks on and off with the layered tracks of each song - that really make these precious, spacious and intimate songs what they are.

Artwork: A

Published in mX, Thursday 18 October 2007.