WAR vs Sleep
[Auralism, Bar25, Rekids]
The collective hive mind known as WAR VS. SLEEP contains two founding members, BEANER (aka pablo roman-alcala) and C.L.A.W.S. (aka brian d. hock). While the two may only have existed for a short time in such a capacity, the war against sleep has been fought as comrades in arms for the ten or so years they have known each other. Having met in San Francisco, where pablo was found often sleeping on brians couch, they became fast friends and while doing some growing up in the bay area/mission punk scene they often smashed around on drums and cheap guitars in brians living room. Many 40’s of panther and bottles of cheap bourbon were drained dry, a lot of things got spray painted on, and there were myriad moments found wearing womens clothing.
Years later, while pablo traveled as tour manager for brian’s coldwave band VANISHING, both were caught off guard with the creativity and ultra bizareness of the Berlin underground techno scene. There had already been talk of a move, but after seeing it in person, there was no more talk, they just did it.
WAR VS. SLEEP was soon borne out of frequent guest dj spots at ERIC D. CLARK and ANDREAS BLOCK’s insane sunday to monday afterhour party, MANYC MONDAY. Pablo would later become a resident dj there after brian had returned to san francisco hoping to jumpstart something similar with his GENTLEMAN’S TECHNO parties.
The afterhour ethos and style permeates the history and the sound of WAR VS. SLEEP. Sleep deprivation combined with a comfort at the end of the world, weird bloops, bubbles and burps hit tough drum design, and a total love of sandwiches throughout. This is not your average electronic music, and it never will be. While there has been talk of ketamine disco in the past, this is bizarro thug house.
Past solo releases include labels Tigerbass/Tigerbeat6 and District of Corruption as well as a slew of remixes on various labels. War vs Sleep has so far released their debut ep 24000 beats under the sandwich on berlin’s Bar25 label and have a forthcoming ep on Radioslave’s Rekids imprint. The tradition of the war vs. sleep continues with pablo’s monthly 24hr berlin afterhour IM FRUEHTAU and brian’s san francisco G.T. events.
