Sleep No More (album)

Infobox Album
Name = Sleep No More
Type = studio
Longtype =
Artist = Comsat Angels


Released = September, 1981
Recorded =
Genre = Post-punk
Length = 38:19 (LP)
Label = Polydor
Producer = Peter Wilson and The Comsat Angels
Reviews = *Allmusic Rating|4.5|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:2aq6g4httv5z link]
Last album = Waiting for a Miracle (1980)
This album = Sleep No More (1981)
Next album = Fiction (1982)

"Sleep No More" was released in September 1981 on Polydor Records. It was the Comsat Angels' second album. The album was reissued on CD twice, in 1995 by RPM Records and in 2006 by Renascent, with different track listings (see below). "Sleep No More" produced no singles, but it had the highest UK chart ranking for any Comsat album, peaking at #51. [Sleeve notes from Renascent re-issue of "Sleep No More"]

After the rushed production of the first album, "Waiting for a Miracle", the band was able to put a lot more craft into "Sleep No More". Frontman Steve Fellows described how they achieved a resonant sound on a couple of the tracks: "Pete Wilson suggested taking the drums out of the studio – on the fourth floor at Polydor – and putting them near the lift-shaft (elevator shaft) by the stairs. We then put microphones on the three floors above and below....Obviously we were only able to do this sort of thing in the evening when the offices were closed!" [Sleeve notes from Renascent re-issue of "Sleep No More"]

Fellows felt the album "Sleep No More" had a unique quality amongst the band's work. "The only [album] which had a 'thread' through it was "Sleep No More", the 'thread' was the sound we wanted to get." [Step Off, interviews, Stephen Fellows Q & A Session May 2002 [http://www.comsatangels.net/] ] Critics recognized it as a great follow-up to "Waiting For a Miracle". Allmusic has this to say, "Sleep No More" is certainly more powerful, and it's also a greater achievement. Here the Comsat Angels became one of the era's exceptional bands." [Allmusic review of "Sleep No More" [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:2aq6g4httv5z] ] Mark Cooper of "Sounds" magazine wrote in a 1981 review that it was "an album that is head and shoulders above anything else recorded this year." [Sleeve notes from Renascent re-issue of "Sleep No More"] And Jack Rabid of "Big Takeover" magazine summed up the album by saying, "I think "Sleep No More" is one of the greatest pieces of music ever released!" [Springhouse forum, comment posted by Jack Rabid, December 9, 1997 [http://tripalot.com/springhouse/post01.htm] ]

When "Sleep No More" was released, it sold out very quickly. Unfortunately Polydor took two weeks to ship additional stock to the record stores, which some felt killed the album's momentum. [Sleeve notes from Renascent re-issue of "Sleep No More"]

Track listing (1981)

"All tracks written by Fellows/Glaisher/Bacon/Peake"
#Eye Dance
#Sleep No More
#Be Brave
#Gone
#Dark Parade
#Diagram
#Restless
#Goat of the West
#Light Years
#Our Secret

Track listing (1995)

"All tracks written by Fellows/Glaisher/Bacon/Peake"
#Eye Dance
#Sleep No More
#Be Brave
#Gone
#Dark Parade
#Diagram
#Restless
#Goat of the West
#Light Years
#Our Secret
#Eye of the Lens
#Another World
#At Sea
#(Do the) Empty House
#Red Planet Revisited

Track listing (2006)

"All tracks written by Fellows/Glaisher/Bacon/Peake"
#Eye Dance
#Sleep No More
#Be Brave
#Gone
#Dark Parade
#Diagram
#Restless
#Goat of the West
#Light Years
#Our Secret
#Eye of the Lens
#Another World
#At Sea
#Mass
#Dark Parade 1 (demo)
#Goat Of The West (demo)
#Be Brave (demo)
#Gone (demo)

Personnel

*Stephen Fellows - vocals, guitar
*Andy Peake - synthesizer, vocals
*Kevin Bacon - bass guitar
*Mik Glaisher - drums

References