The history of Sleepers, the 2024 release by Bakullama, is an interesting one. In 2007, Baku Llama (two words) consisting of Rick Whitehurst, Ann & David Bernath, released a couple of albums, namely Devour My Evil Dream and Eris, both of which attracted some decent interest from reviewers at the time – it is well worth your having a wee look at the band’s entry on Prog Archives.
Come 2024, the sole remaining founding member, Whitehurst, returns with collaborator Kalvin Foster with some old unreleased and new stuff as Bakullama (one word). I think that the best way I can introduce this review is to state that the music rather defies categorisation, which is a definite plus in these here parts. Experimentalism is the order of the day. I should add that seventeen years is a rather large gap between releases, so critical momentum will be in short supply for this project.
The album is available on Bandcamp at https://bakullama1.bandcamp.com/album/sleepers-2024 . There are nine tracks here, and it is quite a whirlwind ride.
We start with The Princess of Tisul, which I believe is a new track from Whitehurst and released in April as a single. It is epic length, ten minutes plus. This is based upon the discovery in 1969 of a sarcophagus in Siberia of a woman in a tomb said to be 800 million years old. She in fact lived in the 5th century BC in what modern day tribesmen still call the second layer of heaven on the plateau she was found on. A “sleeper” indeed. The smoky jazz infused beginning is a delight featuring some fine effects, sax, brass, with the sounds of mammoths in the distance. It is embedded below. I find it utterly mesmerising, drawing the listener into a world of oblique noises and quotes with an ever so quiet intensity drawing not only on the discovery, but also portraying the life this woman might have led all those years ago, little knowing the fuss that discovery would cause. This one is certainly a contender for storytelling track of the year in my annual awards.
Butcher Shop is a track with Foster on guitars, who makes some seriously heavy noise with his box of tricks. At its core, I think this is inspired by latter day Crimson, but it is so infused with its own imprint as to make any comparison rather pointless, a swirling mass of experimental noise, industrial jazz rock at its most brutally effective before taking a prettier turn with some very interesting sound effects backing the barroom piano, which closes proceedings on its own.
The Waves is a previously unreleased track featuring the Bernath’s. It is clever, it is melodic, evoking hot days on the coast as the waves crash in, surfers riding in the distance, something those Californian pioneers of the day would, I think, recognise, people tired after a day’s work heading for relaxation. The guitar work is suitably evocative.
The People v Celia Valdez references a famous novel examining class and race in 19th century Cuba. There are samples of poetry and an operetta, with interesting effects of lovemaking amidst the sometimes-pretty and sometimes-dark keyboards. I rather doubt that you will have heard much like these seven minutes of music, so I have embedded it below for you to enjoy.
Dead Man Trolling is an interesting title, to say the least. The music matches it, another smoky jazz number, the sax, piano, relentless beat, and lazy words creating a southern musical dystopia, with a week in the life (death?).
There Walks A Man again features Foster on guitars, who produces a display of Frippery worthy of comparison, with a sax parping alongside some brass noises.
The final three tracks reintroduce the original band players. Mean Old World/Big Sky Drifter provides one with the panorama of a sweeping western movie, some country infused guitar and quite symphonic keys giving the picture of huge hills behind vast plains as the protagonists make their long and difficult journey. There are some rather gorgeous keys on this, and it is embedded below.
Haymaker is the penultimate track and just over seven minutes long. The effects produced do not make for a comfortable listen beneath the plinking piano, choral voices (which are nice), and quietly throbbing bass. As it progresses, there are some good guitar contributions, and as we come to the denouement, the haymaker announces itself with some vicious chords.
The album closes with Piccolo Pete Goes To Washington. I am not sure whether this references a classic 1929 hit from Ted Weems & His Orchestra (no, nor me) or a cartoon character, but whatever, it is an interesting track featuring meandering keys and an understated thrash electric guitar.
Sleepers is never anything less than interesting, and I am grateful to the band for making me aware of it. The album really does defy all description or categorisation, excepting to state honestly that it is certainly at the farther end of the experimental spectrum of music, quite deliberately. It is not, therefore, an easy listen and, indeed, is outside of the usual comfort zone of the reviewer. This is a strength of the music we listen to. We should be challenged, and this will appeal to those who define themselves as eclectic music buffs.