[engl] "Street Eaters are a truewave/punk band from Berkeley+Oakland, CA that has drawn a range of sonic comparisons to bands from Wipers to Masshysteri, Autoclave to Drive Like Jehu, Huggy Bear to KARP, Sonic Youth’s Bad Moon Rising to Warsaw. After years of relentless international touring on the heels of their well-received album ""Blood::Muscles::Bones"" (released on Nervous Intent in the U.S./Contraszt! in Europe), Megan March and John No returned home to troubled times in their immediate bay area underground punk community/family and the world at large. True to form, the band sought to come to terms with this changed landscape by diving deeply into their own recording studio to create a new record with an expansive new vision. This record, ""The Envoy"", is a concept album based on famed dystopian, gender revolutionary, anti-authoritarian author Ursula K. Le Guin's influential books ""The Dispossessed"" and ""Left Hand of Darkness"". Songs are at the heart of the album and keep its momentum and energy high, atop a shifting musical landscape underpinned by tension, fierce resolve, isolation, and the vastness of mental and physical space. Directly inspired by Le Guin’s radical speculative fiction and analytical lens on the world around us and beyond it, Yes - GLOOM SLEEPER are very late to the post-punk party, but they don't particularly sound like the contemporary and earlier bands of the genre. Nothing from this release sounds dated or trite. GLOOM SLEEPER's style extends from post-punk to new wave, from gothic atmosphere builders to upbeat guitar pop. The band used the recording session to create a textured sonic art that married a breath taking understanding of atmosphere (without loosing its punky edge) with a sense of emotional fury. The music soars where it should and drifts when the listener needs a break from the intensity. The layered, jangly guitar releases liquid notes, the dedicated bass player pumps out rhythms, the fairly powerful drum section bites and the somewhat gothic styled vocals mixed into the songs take everything to a higher level. These guys from Bielefeld, Germany are creating their music based on the sound made popular by British bands like THE SOUND and ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN or THE WIPERS from the other side of the pond. At the same time, the influence of today's THE ESTRANGED or TERRIBLE FEELINGS is obvious. The result is a unique sound that is somehow beyond mere words – A VOID feels entirely cohesive and unified. The inventive arrangements and intricate playing can't take the catchiness out of these 10 songs: Limited colored (semitransparent turquoise) vinyl comes with a heavy printed innersleeve and includes a digital download card. A VOID will leave you re-playing to excess!