The recording project of Jeff Morisano, kissed her little sister has released four albums in the last ten years, and in doing so has established a unique style that sits somewhere at the intersection of lo-fi pop, electronica, hip hop and reggae. Released in 2012, sailor displayed the carefree spirit of the project with mostly acoustic styles (“it’s eclectic and it’s fun and it’s catchy,” we wrote, “but it also isn’t afraid to experiment”), mbube swapped out the guitar for computer beats, sample games and toy synthesizers, and 2017’s Ram continued this lean into electro and pop. But all the releases were marked by a happy-go-lucky essence, a sense of adventure and invention that allowed kissed her little sister to achieve something nuanced and often affirming.
This month saw the release of sleeping giant, a brand new kissed her little sister album which continues this development in a way more sincere and personal than ever. “‘Sleeping giant’ is a phrase meaning someone or something yielding a great power that remains hidden,” Morisano explains. “It’s also the name of a mountain—near where I’m from—that looks like a giant at rest. When my son was born in 2018, he spent 100 days in the neonatal intensive care unit and we could see that mountain from the window of his hospital room. One day, in that room, with my sleeping baby, a song came to me.”
The song was ‘american boy’, the record’s opening track. Situated within the amplified experience of the moment, the song is saturated with feeling, conjuring not just the hospital room but the intricate headspace inside which Morisano experienced it. A breathless sound bursting with energy, with the sensation of not only being alive but being connected to the life all around.
lost in the screen in this world of machines
i am scrolling through memories of analogue dreams
hacked in the mainframe the main part of my brain
where all things converge from the world
look to the giant, the sleeping goliath
with beeping incessantly sounding away
fucked up my shoulder from pushing this boulder
i’ll return to light up the day
[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=3141407578 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small track=2462002370]
From here, sleeping giant barely lets up. The juxtaposition of darkness and light on ‘lord’ is typical of the record, as is the soaring and often mystical energy of ‘slept on’. But there is overt darkness too. ‘way to go’ offers a claustrophobic picture of distress, while ‘hypnotize’ is heartsick and bitter and ‘bubble up’ encapsulates the everything-is-different-yet-nothing-has-changed nature of early fatherhood. But true to the kissed her little sister style, the sheer energy wins out. An irrepressible desire to shake free from one’s troubles, to communicate heart to heart in a kind of ritual. In doing so, sleeping giant invites the listener to join in. “The music is for me and my son,” Morisano concludes, “whose great power continues to reveal itself. But it’s also for anyone in search of some unknown power, or at least some pop music that can be played at high volume.”
sleeping giant is out now and available on a ‘name your price’ basis from the kissed her little sister Bandcamp page.