dreamend reviews (grave010)

Dreamend impressed on 2002's split 'Preface' EP with Monster Movie. The new full length effort embellishes their sound further with a set that meets post-rock and Low at a crossroads, encapsulated in the first song 'Of Raven And Winds'. Typically whey-faced vocals are the order of the day here, punctuated by Godspeed-type guitar whirlwinds. With this ground already being covered by multiple soundalikes it's essential that the songs are strong and - to be fair - some of them are. 'Four Days In May' reveals a mastery of the sense of space and steady drumming that made Breathless' 'Blue Moon' one of the best post-rock albums in recent times. 'Mur Mur' is bolstered by a strong melody but the best moment of all is saved for the quitest tune: the low-slung guitars and tender vocals of 'Can't Take You'. Their willingness to restrain a tendency for bombast could yet serve them well and their decision to insert a different photograph and text into each record sleeve is a nice, individualist touch.

leonards lair

Dreamends As If by Ghosts sounds exactly like what the title describes. This is an album of noisy sonic tones, slowly moving lyrics and even slower strummed guitars. I just could not get into this album; listen after listen it became apparent to me that I would have appreciated acoustic performances of these songs over the droning sounds that disturbed my ability to hear what was going on with the bare bones of the tunes. There is an art to whats going on in this album; I just wasnt getting into it. 

Dreamend comes from Chicago, and this is their second full-length album. I dont feel like writing a bunch of negative things about this music, because I know it might work for some people. There were moments when the album did manage to draw me in, but for the most part, the long, repetitious songs just faded into one another and I struggled to pay attention; but that being said, what did I like? 

At times Dreamend sounded a bit like My Morning Jacket on a lot of the song intros (unfortunately for me I did not feel like they took off like a My Morning Jacket song does), but there are some rock out moments with heavy pounding on the drums and fast scraping on the guitar. Although that picked up the tempo of the album, the songs never found a groove or at least anything that got stuck in my head. 

The cover art is fantastic and actually might be what threw me off. I saw the old black and white image on the cover with a couple of guys dressed in tuxedos from the first half of the twentieth century, and I thought for sure I was going to be listening to some new big band type of album; when it wasnt, I had trouble finding what I was looking for in the music. Bottom line is that while this album isnt for me, it will work for some.

left off the dial

Soft and fragile with timidity one moment, brash and aggressive the next, Dreamend’s “As If By Ghosts” floats by as a stream of consciousness. The album’s ten tracks lose a feeling of independence as they closely follow one another, bleeding together, on this relaxed and focused album of haunting and spacey music. In the end, it is Dreamend’s haunting familiarity that keeps “As If By Ghosts” interesting instead of the tediousness that could accompany a band driven by noise.

     When used, light vocals float between being the focus and being just another element to accentuate the music. “Murmur” and “Four Days In May” are slow, rhythm driven tracks with delicate vocals that are seemingly suspended in the dense instrumentation. Guitars twang gently and slide slowly (and, somewhat, unsurprisingly) on “Slide Song” as the vocals whisper in your ear. But on “Can’t Take You,” vocals step into the spotlight for a more traditional approach as a guitar strums as accompaniment.

     Vocals abandoned, instrumental tracks make up half the album, such as with the xylophone tapping lightly on “Ellipsis.” A spacey lullaby, “The Almighty,” is weightless before it is quickly dominated by a heavy thumping and pounding. Rhythm drives “The Old House and Its Occupants” as the song varies from heavy to light and a gentle pounding reminds of the ocean’s surf. The chaos that Dreamend is controlling is never as clear as on “Ten Guitars From Salem” where drum rolls dominate and percussion takes over to fill the spacey sound. And just like the calm from the storm, “Passing,” lingers with light instrumentation.

     Dreamend rely heavily on their instrumentation throughout “As If By Ghosts.” Setting moods with quick changes in tones and volumes, “As If By Ghosts” borders, unexpectedly, on disarray and confusion at times as it quickly swoops and dips through segments. Despite the constant changes in tone, “As If By Ghosts” remains constant and contained, fully knowing ahead of time where it is taking the listener on this ethereal experience.

plug in music

The artwork is overwhelmingly great. It reminds me of Do Make Say Think's self-titled album in the way that the sleeve has a centred cut-out square, revealing an image as if it were a window into the world of the record. The antiquated black-and-white lady is smiling knowingly at me, as if the album contains her secrets. The negative provided within shows a couple cutting a cake at another boring family event, with an uncle falling asleep in the background. Getting insights into other people's memories through photographs, making decisions about meanings of poses, then relating them to the person's own recollection is fun!

All music is insight-giving, but given the visual clues it's more of a treat to build your own narration to the highly personal songs, and also figure out what the hell they have to do with the ripped page from ‘The Jewish War', also provided.

-Miranda

DREAMEND - AS IF BY GHOSTS.....

It's difficult not to fall instantly in love with an album, when everything about it seems so perfect. The packaging has the same care and attention embedded in it as Godspeed You Black Emperor (amazingly appropriate given Dreamend's penchant for slow swirling apocalypic melt-downs), complete with an individual photographic slide and a page from a novel (Shadow Land).

Opening track Of Ravens and Winds descends from a desperately honest and stagnant opening into an irascible finale. It's all in danger of sounding a bit like a Godspeed tribute album however, but the lovely xylophonic touches of the much poppier and condensed Ellipses, and the acoustic lingering of the beautiful Four Days in May are ample and unique enough to steer Dreamend clear of any of the straightforward post-rock icebergs. Indeed at times their songs can even seem more inclined towards bedsit-indie rather than possessing any grander agendas.

When they do venture nearer to more math-rock territory they do manage to pull it off with an accomplished air and are usually more concerned with making brief and potent points (The Old House and Its Occupants, a Sunny Holiday and a Shadow Ship) rather than long drawn out narratives (after all four or five minutes isn't particularly weighty as intrumental guitar bands go). The wonderful Can't Take You almost has echoes of the heart-breaking guitar of Jeff Buckley, while Ten Guitars from Salem recovers after a vengeful opening into something far more hauntingly melodic. As If By Ghosts.... offers far more textures and landscapes than the typical post-rock fare, and is a much more interesting and affecting prospect as a result.

Review written by Michelle Dalton

I've finally moved in my new appartment. It's nice, cosy and soundproof and I can have parties, drink too much everyday and meet nice people. After having felt too much I've thought too much and now I'm just guts and brains. Need to find some kind of consistence, to shape a body out of this and to try to live new things in case something good happens.

Dreamend are a post rock band, but with a singer (aha!). It reminds me of Do Make Say Think, a more low-key Broken Social Scene and of the first Jim Yoshii Pile-Up album (right before they turned all Death Cab for Cutie on us).

Ok, who am I kidding, I HAVE to tell you about the packaging. It's got a cut-out window like Goodbye Enemy Airship the Landlord is Dead, a unique photograph (mine: two guys and a woman drinking) like Jim Yoshii Pile-Up, a negative of a picture (mine: a truck in an industrial zone) and a torn page of a book that seems to be titled Shadow Land (I have page 79). When you receive a copy of an album with that kind of packaging and all these useless (but undeniably cool) goodies, you tend to be nicer in your review. I've tried to stay objective and good-humoured and I've succeeded (yay!).

Of course the global quality of the album, songwriting, interpretation, instrumentation made being unbiased really easy. You might ask yourself, "do we really need another post rock band ?" and I might tell you "no, but we didn't need those GYBE! hippies in the first place either." It's a bit psychedelic at times, with hazy vocals and ghostly guitars, it reminds me of a rawer, less arty Sigur Ros jamming with Do Make Say Think (but without all the horns). The singer (Kyle!) sometimes sound like the Adore-era Billy Corgan on the quiet pieces (actually, he sounds a bit more fragile and a bit more sincere).

Dreamend's music is warm enough to fit another silly Winter it's not always post rock like "quiet, quiet, quiet, quiet, KA-BOOM" there are more traditionnal songs, with verses and chorus and no spectacular explosions. Of course there's still your usual Mogwai tremolo here and there, but as it is something Mogwai seem to be tired of I don't really mind. The more I listen to "As if by Ghosts…" the more I realise this is the sophomore album I thought Jim Yoshii Pile-Up would do (they didn't, those silly emo-rockers, they thought it was a better idea to knock on Chris Walla's door and make the best Death Cab for Cutie record in a while, tsk tsk tsk, etc).

This is a charming record, with various moods and atmospheres, a car trip across snowy landscapes, with halts in warm taverns smelling of good alcohol and bad cigarette, cathartic drug experiences in red velvet rooms, passionate love, dramatic break-ups and an OK ending.

At this point, you might ask yourself "could this really be a good present for my moody friend in need of more delicate but furious but still delicate music ?" and I might answer "well, it could be."

-Barbara H