Doug Bleek – Island in the Sky

By Chris Gedos

Slothbear bassist and multi-instrumentalist Doug Bleek drops a mutha’ of a track with “Island in the Sky”. A hypnotic intro and chord progression, reminiscent of one of those great B-sides from Mavers and The La’s (“Over”and “Endless”, in particular), leads into a sweet vocal more nuanced than “Sleepy Daze”, Bleek’s track from Slothbear’s Canter On EP, which was spun into the ground here @ HQ. Comparisons to Sloan come to mind as well. Bleek’s well versed in the pantheon; that much is certain. Listening to “Island in the Sky”, one is struck with that feeling of a shared history, of having heard the same music, read the same books and lived the same experiences, an increasingly rare thing given 2k12’s hyper-fragmented culture.

Doug Bleek (Bandcamp)

Rating 8.6

Reviewed by b3