Team Sleep: Better Than The Deftones Any Day of The Week

Album: Team Sleep
Artist: Team Sleep
Genre: Experimental Rock
Year: 2005
Label: Maverick

Chino Moreno is best known for his work as the Deftones vocalist. The Deftones, while an excellent band on most of their albums, simply pale in comparison to Team Sleep. Formed initially as a collaboration between Moreno and guitarist Todd Wilkinson, Team Sleep is a mixing bowl of a band. But the point of an experimental band is to experiment, right? While the Deftones remain cemented in an alt metal sound, Team Sleep branches out to numerous genres and incorporates influences that would never find a home with the Tones. Another major difference is the lack of aggression in Team Sleep’s music. The Deftones have a lot of pent up fury. In contrast, Team Sleep is a far more chilled out project. But to keep comparing them like this is really quite unfair, actually. After all, Team Sleep has Zach Hill as their drummer, so the contest is over, Team Sleep wins.

On that note, Hill’s drumming, always good, usually ludicrously brilliant, is somewhat more contained here compared to other albums he has lent his talents to. This is not the kind of music that always requires Hella-like scatter pummeling, but regardless, Hill is in top form. But back to the sounds: Team Sleep initially struck me as a melding of the Deftones and Radiohead; mainly the latter’s more experimental and electronic albums. But that is a somewhat limited description as Team Sleep sounds like Radiohead as often as they sound like Massive Attack, My Bloody Valentine or Explosions in the Sky. Speaking of which, the guitar playing is really out of sight on this album. Wilkinson and Moreno duel over Hill’s drums or DJ Crooks beats to create spirals of sound that are sometimes time lulling in their beauty or soaring in their urgency. Moreno’s voice is unique, you always recognize him when he sings for better or worse. Some people really hate his voice but I’m not one of them. The elevating sound of some of the work on here is well complemented by his poetic vocals. But he’s not the only vocalist here. Indie stalwart Rob Crow (of Pinback) sings on four of the fifteen tracks. His voice is like a cool drink of water, flowing over the music, painting everything an even deeper shade of blue. The song “Our Ride to the Rectory,” my favorite of the album, features extensive vocals from Crow. Mary Timothy (of Helium) also stops in to lend her voice to a few songs, including the haunting “Tomb of Liegia” which could be a glitched up Portishead take, lost in time.

The strength of this band falls on the ensemble's ability to create music diverse in nature, but all falling under the umbrella of the “Team Sleep sound”. Chino Moreno’s band is something else as this one album outshines almost everything he’s ever done with the Deftones. Hopefully, their next album will be out soon as I’ve had this one for a long time and am starting to get antsy for more.