when you wake up

****1/2

I loved this record the same way I love good food – I may have tasted it before but if the recipe is good, the ingredients authentic and the cook is talented then it is very satisfying.It is impossible to review this song without mentioning My Bloody Valentine. All the ingredients are there; a wall of distortion, use of whammy bar to curl chord changes, cavernous tribal drumming, droning bass and echo-laden female vocals hidden under the infinite wash of sound.

This is not music to dance to. I may be wrong but I imagine a live performance from The Dunes would see the audience standing still and letting the music crash over them. I have heard this band describe themselves as “dream pop” but the place they took me to seems less like a dream and more like a trance; definitely less pop and more rock. Trance-rock that doesn’t rely on chemicals to induce altered brain states but lets volume and density affect you.

This song takes its time – from the droning introduction and the fade in of the heartbeat-paced drums it is dense and visceral – it has no space or pace in it, but you feel it. I couldn’t really understand the lyrics, didn’t need to, didn’t want to – Stacie Reeves’ voice is used as an instrument, keening like a bluesy siren, lost in a sea of reverb, strong but way down in the mix.

Play this loud. And then go and see it live. Louder.

Also printed in Bside Magazine 30 April 2015

Bside