Ssleeping DesiresS

Ssleeping DesiresS is the project of San Francisco musician Gabriel Ramos. The project has seen people come and go, with Ramos being the “owner” and the only stable member. He began recording alone while living in Portland, Oregon, as a result of an ever-growing appetite for music he developed through the city’s DIY scene. Ramos claims Ssleeping DesiresS descended from acts such as Chrome and Suicide, but his output—the 7″ “A Voice”/“Sister,” released on FlexiWave in 2012, and the eponymous 2015 full-length (OnderStroom Records)—betrays a fascination with ’80s goth/synth/cold-wave music, as well as some rather unexpected hints of dub (check the track “Impasse” in particular). His music maintains a melancholic quality despite being full of contagious post-punk basslines, screeching guitar work, and punchy beats. Any one of the tracks is a potential dancefloor hit. All of these aspects are on display in his exclusive mix.

Records and connections

STM 163 is a well-researched venture into a vault filled with classic post-punk/wave gems, seamlessly interwoven with a couple of soundtrack pieces and abstract interludes. Claudio Gizzi’s dramatic score from Andy Warhol’s “Flesh for Frankenstein” serves as an excellent introduction for a selection that develops into much darker territory, with the murky and soulful Octavius piece—full of hidden melodics and monolithic beats—before exploding into a French-sounding noir dancefloor anthem by Deux. It maintains an elegant, moody, danceable line with Jeff and Jane Hudson’s punchy and haunting “Los Alamos,” as well as John Maus’s playful synth explorations in “Rights for Gays.” Guitars are also present with the tribal, energizing Scottish post-punk of The Flowers and Wire’s classic piece “Outdoor Miner” from their innovative masterpiece “Chairs Missing.” The intensity finds shelter in Arthur Russell’s noisy melancholy and Ennio Morricone’s cinematic balladry before getting wild again with Chrome and the sharp synth voyage of Spector Protector. The mix might be a good choice for both listening and moving. It has the right amount of emotionalism to affect one internally, while remaining intense enough to keep the heat up during cold autumn evenings. Richard Mortensen’s abstract painting “Cat” would be a nice visual interpretation for this mix.