Review: Dreamtime - Strange Pleasures

I suppose there must come a time in every reviewer's 'career' (I use that word loosely) when they throw their arms up in despair. It's getting close to that here folks - every time I think I've things sorted in my head re: best of the year etc, along comes another one to throw into the mix - and it's happened again! To be fair, I had a fair inkling about this one for a while (ever since the good Cardinal announced it was happening in fact). Earlier in the year, February to be exact, I reviewed Dreamtime's s/t & 'Sun' LPs brought to us by Cardinal Fuzz, and bloody good they were too. December brings a brand new Dreamtime album....a double to boot....again from Cardinal Fuzz in conjunction with Sky Lantern (US) and TYM (Aus/NZ). The press blurb for this album states that the band "went about creating an imaginary, dream-like sci-fi fantasy film that follows a spirit's journey from the human body through death, mystic rituals, the spirit world, a soul's liberation into the cosmos, multiple reincarnations, and out into astral journeys and alien encounters."..sounds hopeful! It also says that the album " is sure to stand as one of the most ambitiously creative projects the international psychedelic-rock scene has seen in many a moon"...let's see shall we.

‘Luminous Night’ opens the album in a fine manner...a retro, Floydian intro, very analogue rich, gives way to some beautiful vox from Cat. But it's after the melodic vocals that things get really interesting...some 70s heavy psych guitar soars from the speakers and some pummeling primal drums beat out a tribal tattoo. It's a track that doesn't allow itself to settle into a structure - it ebbs and flows between the atavistic and the smooth. If the rest of the album follows in the same vein, boy are we in for a trip! ‘Golden Altar’ sees the mood shift to the more shamanistic side of things. Deep chants and angelic voices are underlined by some seriously primitive drums whilst some more of those luscious synths weave a psychedelic backdrop. The guitars are subtle and understated and the whole vibe is one of calm...and then the storm breaks...drums and guitar gather pace accompanied by a droning organ until it becomes a psychedelic voodoo orgy before settling back down into some form of post-coital lull. ‘River Sprites’ sees are more tranquil, understated side to the band. Another track deeply rooted in the seventies with a definite folk influence. Again, Cat's vocals are a standout - ethereal and dreamy and in stark counterpoint to Zac's earthier tones. 'Fire' takes as it's base the exotic melodies of the east rather than the afrocentric rhythms of 'Luminous Night' and 'Golden Altar'. The sound of the Shahi Baaja (courtesy of Fergus Smith) adds a whole different psychedelic perspective...like a happening in a bazaar...and it all sounds rather special. There will be people who make the comparison to Goat - anything that sounds vaguely psychedelic and 'world' seems to these days...but this is vastly superior (remember folks...these words are just MY opinion!). It's another number that rises and falls, never content to follow a straight path, but that's what makes it so good. ‘Ascension’ opens like one of those ace Italian soundtracks to a seventies cannibal movie...tribal drums and analogue synths...great stuff. When the vocals are introduced the feel changes again with Zac and Cat working in tandem to produce something as menacing as it comfortable....but it's the music that is really special...the addition of a theremin (always welcome) imbues proceedings with a ghostly feel and when it's brought together with the crashing drums and throbbing bass line it feels as though the track is alive. So far, so fucking excellent...each track seems to be topping the former thus far..if this continues then: 1. I'm gonna have some form of an aneurysm and 2. Dreamtime have just torn up the form book for 2016!..

...and so on to ‘The Sentient’...this is where I run out of superlatives...it is an absolute killer of a track. An intro straight from a slasher pic..all atmosphere and things that go bump in the night and supremely menacing reaches the point where you are shouting 'don't go down the cellar' but too late....for dwelling in the cellar is a brute of a track. It has everything....pounding drums and fuzz filled riffs big enough to bring Godzilla down, but it's the details that make this sooo very special - the vocoder is something you don't hear very often - and the electronica swirls and patterns. It moves from full-on psych to lysergic filled prog. This is what 'War Of The Worlds' would have sounded like this if Jeff Wayne had taken buckets of acid listening to Sabbath and chewing the fat with Charlie Manson..easily one of my fave tracks of the year. We are brought back down to earth with ‘Strange Pleasures’; another acid folk based number with some sublime guitarwork but also an undercurrent of something more solid...the sound of some wah-wah infused heavy psych seeps through the folky vox and the swirling cosmic electronica - it all has a more chilled vibe...almost a respite from the psychedelic maelstrom of 'The Sentient', that being said, it it does evolve into something far heavier but still retains a certain air of calm. ‘Celestial Spores’ is a short track of sparkling synths and a simple riff that morphs into a 1970s sci-fi score. ‘Spectral Entropy’ begins in much the same way...some spacey sound effects that sound as thought they are straight out of 'Blake's 7' that build and build until, as the title may suggest, it all falls into disorder, heralding the main body of the track which is a lovely space rock number. The guitar, again, is sublime; soaring majestically into the stratosphere. There is something about Zac's guitar that reminds me of Mick Ronson's work on Bowie's 'Width Of A Circle'. ‘Gamma Globulin’ is built around a heartbeat and is a melange of effects, electronica and experimental musings...a nice little abstract vignette. ‘Serpent’s Tongue’ closes the album and is a glorious spacey psych track with some post-punk like vocals full of attitude. It is a suitable postscript with which to close a goddamn amazing album!

It's hard to really express what I feel about this album....I've listened to a lot of albums this year...and what a year it's been!....some have been good, fewer have been very good, perhaps about a dozen have been excellent but I can count on three fingers how many I've been truly moved by...the albums that re-enthuse me, that have me metaphorically running down the street shouting to all - this is one of them. What Dreamtime have achieved is to build on what they did so well with their S/T album and 'Sun', but they've evolved and feel confident enough to experiment with sound and form. This is a majestic album, truly amazing! The statement in the opening paragraph is absolutely spot on - this really is "one of the most ambitiously creative projects the international psychedelic-rock scene has seen in many a moon" 'Strange Pleasures' is available from Cardinal Fuzz (Europe), Sky Lantern Records (US) and TYM Records (Australia, New Zealand & Japan) on 2nd December, with a limited release of 500 vinyl copies. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've gotta go and get an aneurysm treated.