**Includes download code redeemable from the label** Raffertie finds a niche between The xx's indie-pop, the avant-R&B of Autre Ne Veut, and his own, angular electronics on this impressive debut album. His previous single 'Build Me Up' signified a change of tack and ambition from writing party bangers to arranging mature, brooding electronic pop music. There are obvious precedents in the music of James Blake and, to an extent, AlunaGeorge, whom he first discovered and released on his Super label, yet 'Sleep Of Reason' is an assuredly idiosyncratic effort, laden with earworming hooks and cathartic soul and imbued with a technoid rhythmic swagger that you don't find in many of his contemporaries. We're talking about the Autre Ne Veut-on-steroids styles of 'Build Me Up' and the rumbling garage-techno-pop of 'Last Train Home' or the epic sci-fi post-rock of 'Black Rainbow' and the crashing sci-fi stadium pop of closer, 'Back Of Lane', making for a great balance with the tender eloquence of his softer pieces such as the instantly memorable 'The Rain' or the organ-haunted soul of 'Trust' in duet with Yadi. A sterling effort, RIYL Holy Other, Wife, The xx, James Blake, Burial, Autre Ne Veut.
