Dreamend's album “As If By Ghosts” is something that is clearly well thought out from the opening of “If Ravens & Winds”' haunting vocal lullabye chorus of “time goes by” to the last note of the Explosions in the Sky-esque “Passing.”
The album's 10 superbly crafted songs were produced and honed over a 4 year period, and everything right down to the snapshots of individual artwork sleeves (there are several possible covers available) is lovingly devised. Each separate design come with a unique photograph from the early 1920’s. Mine features a mono-image of an eerie group of masked people in a local American suburban neighbourhood. It conveys the notion of the album's 'past times' concept to perfection.
“Four days in May”'s brooding atmosphere dazzles the sense. Imagine Billy Corgan-esque vocals mixed with deafening Mogwai noise. It evokes something truly hauting. Songs like “Can’t Take You” require further investigation with quite slow lush pop elegance gradually taking time to crystallise and then falling away into loud, focussed and abrasive walls of guitar that finally blend into mood pieces. Impressive, in a word.
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Dreamend balance layered melody with reverberating cycles as all sorts of new layers of sound open up throughout the album. What really impresses is essentially the gorgeousness of their overall sound: taking complicated arrangements that blend and push the music away from the basic to create textured modern music healthily unreliant on overused cliches. When it finally comes to rest, all you want to do is revisit the senses that have been stirred now the dream has ended.
"As If By Ghosts" is an unconventional, notable debut that oozes class. It's an accessible but edgy album and holds all its' strands together impressively. It's a wondrous example of cutting edge guitar music, fuelling expectations that their next album might just help alter the musical landscape for the better.
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