This morning we’ve got a doctor’s appointment, but don’t worry, it’s nothing serious, there’s no stethoscope or medication in sight nor any Stephen King-style drama. You don’t even have to get out of bed if you don’t want to. Just breathe calmly, close your eyes and let yourself be carried away into the hypnotic depths of Doc Sleep’s music, a doctor who wishes you well.

Doc Sleep is the alias of DJ and producer Melissa Maristuen. But the artist who has been roaming the queer clubbing scene for years between New York, Berlin and the West Coast, is not new to the game. Alongside her projects Beats Unlimited, her collaboration with Glenn Astro (whom we welcomed in our 449th episode) and Collectibles, she explores new textures under this alias, between the ambient and IDM sounds of her beginnings and the breakbeat and techno rhythms of her clubgoer experience.

Doc Sleep’s selection

Joni Mitchell - Help Me

Melissa: ” The entire Court and Spark album is such a wonderful morning listen - but I’ll narrow it down with ’Help Me.’ Stacked lush harmonies, punchy horns, and such a fresh arrangement - even now. The song is sunshine streaming in through the window, warming your skin. A timeless piece of music. “

Pharoah Sanders - Greeting to Saud (Brother McCoy Tyner)

Melissa: ” This is a gorgeous atmospheric piece with emotive piano that resonates deeply over shimmering bells, tambura drones, shakers, vocals. It’s incredibly rich and peaceful - after so many listens over the years, it still unfurls a bit more each time. “

Global Communication - 8:07

Melissa: ” One of the best electronic music albums of all time. ‘8:07’ is what sunrise sounds like to me—pure emotion for 8 minutes. Learning that Chapterhouse played that guitar riff and also had their voices recorded for the choral pad toward the end makes it even more special. I hope to hear this song at dawn at a rave on a mountaintop someday. “

MailTape’s selection

Doc Sleep - Professor Eucalyptus

Jules: ” This track opens Cloud Sight Fade, Doc Sleep’s latest album released in March 2024 on Dark Entries Records. It’s a perfect way to get into this album, which Melissa describes as a love letter to the West Coast’s magnificent natural landscape, the light of the Pacific sunrise. But beyond dreamlike textures and melodies, this music also brings us back to our own bodies and the feelings that run through us when we dance with our eyes closed.”

Toumba - Identity Crisis

Jules: ” Taken from Petals EP, Toumba’s EP released on Hessle Audio last year, this track incorporates elements of Maqam Rast, one of the most common types of melodies in Arabic music. Recently I have become more and more interested in the bridges that exist between breakbeat and UK bass and Levantine microtonality, syncopated rhythms that surprise us and disrupt the way we move. The Jordanian artist is definitely one of the voices to follow in this movement. “

Ciel - Bamboo

Jules: ” I remember my first encounter with Ciel (real name Cindy Li), when she was mixing at an open-air club in New-York a few years ago. It was the height of summer, the weather was hot and the Toronto-based DJ was churning out energetic, joyful and colorful house bangers. This track opens her debut album Homesick, released in November 2023, and served as a kind of catharsis for the artist who, along with covid19, experienced a great deal of anxiety and pain in the face of the rising racism affecting people from the Chinese diaspora in the West. ‘Bamboo’ refers to one of the eight types of traditional Chinese instrument that Ciel has incorporated into this album, with each track focusing on one of them. On this track, we obviously find groovy and danceable rhythms, but coupled with melancholy textures and traditional melodies that Li recorded after buying and teaching herself to play smaller hand drum instruments like the kuaiban (bamboo clappers). It sounds like the affirmation of a musical identity rich in so many experiences, varied genres and passions and overflowing emotions, and that’s delightful to hear.”

Frankie Rose - Sleeping Night And Day

Jules: ” Let’s take a gentle return to the world of pop, without neglecting the lush atmospherics, and transcendent melodies. Taken from Love As A Projection, Frankie Rose’s return album, this track continues to guide us through slumber and wakefulness. It’s a prescription that I am very willing to follow.”

Thank you for being with us this morning, and lots of gratitude to Noémie Dijon for her hypnotic illustration. Many thanks to Doc Sleep for this inspiring trip, which we’d like to see reimbursed by social security. Remember to take care of yourself and others!