Cloudkicker: Sending My Dreams Into A Talespin

I'm the type of person that gets an average of 5 hours of sleep per night, during the week. I don't really have a choice since I can't fall asleep unless it's well past 1AM and I usually have to wake up by 7AM if not earlier. I'm also the type of person who'll lay down to go to sleep and finds himself staring the at the ceiling, unable to drift off as planned - sometimes for quite a while.

Not this Cloudkicker.

My own personal remedy for this is picking up my iPod, plugging in my headphones and laying back to some jams, until I finally feel Mr. Sandman calling, or until I out right fall asleep, headphones on and all.

Last night was such a case, as I woke up this morning with my headphones hanging off the side of my bed and the cable twisted around my arm and head.

My music was trying to kill me in my sleep. Alright, maybe not, but the prospect of asphyxiating myself with my headphone cable is something I'll be sure to take into consideration before I fall asleep the next time.

My chosen sleeping aid for the past few days has been Beacons the newest LP released by Cloudkicker.

That's the one-man instrumental phenom Ben Sharp, not the character from Talespin.

Cloudkicker has released two LP's and three EP's in the past two years, each of which bringing it's own style and brand of asskickery.

Cloudkicker's repertoire includes everything from slow evocative melodies, to powerful progressive metal overtones and djent. The one thing that stands out above all else is the quality of the productions, seeing as how Cloudkicker produces all of his material by himself, mainly on his own laptop. Recording all guitar and bass tracks himself and using technical wizardry to fill out any other necessary rhythms.

Sharp has made all of his releases free to the public, using the pay-what-you-please system, beginning with his debut LP The Discovery, which was released in 2008.

Beacons, follows this tradition and is currently available for streaming and digital download via Cloudkicker's Bandcamp page.

For the first time, Sharp is also selling physical copies of Beacons for 10$, well worth it for the quality of music he consistently provides. One is soon to be sitting upon my mantle, framed in fucking platinum.

Be sure to check out Cloudkicker on MySpace at http://www.myspace.com/cloudkicker.

You'll also find his entire repertoire, as mentioned before, on his Bandcamp page.

And as always, a little taste for you schmucks (I'll look into finding a better quality upload, once one goes up):