My Review: Oceans - Dreamers in Dark Cities

 Oceans - Dreamers in Dark Cities  

How many times do you travel to the same location? And if you return it is because you really liked it.

Now repeating a trip to Melbourne means taking up residence there, since you want to inebriate yourself with the streets where you imagine the subtle, enchanting presences that generated Oceans' debut album live, ambassadors of a single verb: nourishment in the name of a beauty rooted in the exploratory awareness of consciousness. One is impressed, bewitched by a maturity that is scattered throughout the tracks, with the dust of dreams being served one by one in our intimacy.

When a dream finds sound, it surely knocks at the door of our consciousness with the lightness of Oceans, in a walk with a wise use of modalities that have as instruments the solid stem of Shoegaze, the Gynecium and the Androecium (the feminine and masculine part of the flower) within Dreampop, in the enchanting play of bright, subdued, always shining colours. A brave, true album that explores reality and annihilates cruelty with charming melodic flights, turning these two main musical genres into a psychedelic journey, with full-bodied doses of nectar-filled hives for a listening experience that becomes a full meal for our soul. Of course, we are in the presence of reverberations, distortions and feedback, but all incredibly mixed to give us first of all the physicality of the dream and not only a musical dimension. We find ourselves experiencing pathos in a listening that produces vibrations and affective dependencies, a rush towards the void without fear. Everything unfolds without forcing, with respect for the eardrums but with the capacity to arouse high doses of emotion. Arpeggios and rhythms share the stage in this dream that lasts much longer than its thirty-five minutes: the effects remain intact for the rest of the day, as they take up residence in the desire not to see it die. Whether or not they are able to evolve music is a wrong question: these Australians go beyond music, they do not separate, they do not unite, they can do it because the magic wand has rested on the core of their songs making them special, magnetic, distancing them from those of other bands. It is a continuous crescendo that seems to be performed by an orchestra of angels directed by the God of Music who has surely blessed the group and given them the secret to making this album envelop our hearts. When the clouds are not laden with rain, but with notes that know how to be messengers of textures, of stories where negative feelings are cuddled and embraced, then the miracle of a better world takes place because that's just how it is: Dreamers in Dark City is the manifest possibility of listening to different music. And we are all more beautiful...

Song by Song

1 - Feels Like You

One relies on an opening that shows us the delicacy of a guitar that seems to play in the water. Then the song presents a dreamy structure with Shoegaze oscillations, in a caress on the skin which gives back its poetry with whispered vocals that fascinate. 

2 - Mike Tysong 

A ride that leaves initial Darkwave imprints and then an Alternative wave that bewitches, vocals are a seizure of the senses, while the guitar gradually makes its voice heard more. The bass and drums, on the other hand, are friends, eating up the rhythm and acting as a counterbalance to singing, which seems to have come out of a perfect wash as its soul, at first shy and then more resolute, fills the heart. 

In the face of bewitching magic, the addiction of repeated listening is the guarantee for this gem.

3 - Soft

Can a gust of wind cry, touching you? Yes, definitely. The synth creates the right current, vocals and backing vocals are Shoegaze cells, while the music travels through the best pop attitude of the 80s, with the guitar being a chant within joyful Dreampop. 

4 - Look Into My Eyes

A circular blade opens the song: it's the lead guitar coming out of the rhythmic one and elevating the sound towards the clouds, with vocals doing the opposite (at least initially), flying at low altitudes, and then it's an impact that envelops us, in a Shoegaze stratification which is measured and then aggressive, almost Post-Rock. The various Stop and Go, the guitar that remains the protagonist, the final fade-out make it another gem of this album.

5 - Breathless

 One cries, one dreams, between controlled impetuosity and a moving delicacy, for a track that exerts an enormous emotional power, ending up taking us eyes closed into the rush of the drums, the skillful touches of the bass, the two angelic voices and the guitars, goddesses of dynamics, for a slow and welcoming Dreampop. Dreams can sleep safely...

6 - Pure

The first song to be revealed before the release of the album, it is proof that melody can travel at a good speed without losing any of its identity. The band's state of grace and skills continue to draw their trajectory. Take Pure: how to resist the temptation to want to embrace life? Just follow the bass work that is a chant in itself and the guitars that constantly reiterate how the roots of Dreampop remain valid. A fresh and dynamic sound is added here.

7 - Apart

Even angels run, without breaking a sweat, leaving the scent of a sustainable melancholy at times. It happens in this track, where everything is delicate and impetuous, in a partnership that brings great emotion. The drumming, in an Indie setting, alternates its dynamics supported by a bass that seems a steam locomotive, with the hints of guitar which later become more present to make this song a rhythmic cushion, in order to rest on every cloud.

8 - Lost In The Dark

Delicate notes come out from the keys of a piano, the voice finds the words to convey its thoughts, while the guitar comes in and takes single sounds to transport dreams into a magical alternative: you are in the 90s zone, in England, and when you get to the refrain you can hear an echo of Slowdive uniting the two bands, flying over the ocean.

9 - Exodus

You are inside the wind that kisses the mountain, the weather is autumnal, the piano is enveloped by Ambient attitudes, the semi-acoustic guitar sets its voice for a few moments and in this short track there is all the intensity of the Australians: pure jewel.

10 - Ashes

We escape from a painful situation with this last song, the magic becomes slow, dreamy and raucous, almost weeping, but then everything enters the Australian rock that invites Shoegaze to take a walk and it is pure delirium of the senses, in an emotional traffic that makes us cry and is the perfect way to close this album, with a thunderous thank you that, coming out of the guitars, reaches our voice…

Album out on 24th March 2023

Alex Dematteis

Musicshockworld

Salford

23rd March 2023

https://oceansmusicaus.bandcamp.com/album/dreamers-in-dark-cities