Some might see, when gazing into the art for Dark Dreams, by Thoughts, several sky-rise office complexes. I see grids feasting on grids feasting on grids. It’s a grid-eat-grid world out there. Very noir, yeah?
Artist: Thoughts
Title: Dark Dreams
Label: Effluvia Recordings
Cat#: ER047
Keywords: Endless sonic journey
Reviewer: Alex Spalding
This album, titled Dark Dreams, is by Thoughts — a group comprised of Roberto Lazzarino, lending vocals, guitar, samples and effects and Laetitia Schteinberg who contributed synths and production to the album. Laetitia, as you may have noticed if you’ve read the last five reviews I’ve written, is currently going through a very rough situation. The Swedish Migration Board are looking at deporting her from Sweden back to Russia where, being a member and organizer in the LGBT movement, she has been harassed, subjected to various cruelties and inhumane treatment, and will likely suffer further persecution if she has her asylum in Sweden taken from her. None of us want this… she is a human being, and a brilliant artist, who’s work profoundly effects those of us who consider ourselves her fans and her friends, adding much in the way of value to our lives. If you would like to help, please read her story and sign this position to make the Swedish Migration Board understand that they must allow her to stay and cannot in good conscience force her back to Russia, a country with horrendous and absolutely backwards policies toward lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgendered people. She has little time left for signatures to be gathered, but very, very few signatures to go, so anything you can do will help significantly. Thank you!
First we have a track called ‘I Don’t Believe In Future’. It seems as if it might rain in this mix, when the ambient tones climb up into the threshold of our perceptions. A very nice modulated sequence begins… synth horn drones rise and fall. The rhythmic modulations are also very interesting, like crushed, splashing mechanismic percussion. Very subtle, hypnotic…
‘New Dark Age’ sounds like desolation. An altogether quiet wind, the brush of debris. A guitar can be heard escalating in the mix, and then a low, throbbing bass kick, very downtempo and 4/4. Industrial clatter is arranged like a makeshift groove! This track is really nice! Ghosts of cities unlived wash over us as everything momentarily disappears. Then the groove shifts into something else. A pulsing, energetic bassline comes in, as well as a trace of vocals, ethereally mixed in with the atmosphere which has become beautifully melancholic.
Next is ‘Waiting And Hoping For The Best’, sounding a lot like what I’m doing right now! Wisps of forgotten memories float by in a stream of nostalgia. It feels like a river of sound drifting by, of love. I am focused on the synth sequence and how it seems to shift in emotion when the harmonic shift of the ambient string/choirs come on. This is probably my favourite piece on this album. Very deep, feeling like a headlong rush of intense joy within a past/present/future bubble. The rhythmic sequences are distorted, almost like industrial breaks, which make for a very beautiful juxtaposition with the ambient sounds. This is some of my favourite kind of music. Very pleasant, ethereal, melancholy and sentimental, yet driven by an intense, noise-laden energy.
‘Preparing For The Different’ features The Implicit Order, who’s album Drifters I reviewed not so long ago. This work is like a darkscape of subdued, mental intangibles. A voice lurks amidst this darkness, very hard to discern and only flitting in very rarely. We hear heavy, thick dirges of low bass and occasionally a high-pitched bit of feedback.
All of the artists who made up this album produced excellent sounds here! Please take a moment or few to listen at the link. Very quality stuff!
Yeah I Know It Sucks 