Wednesday 15 October 2014

$.99 Dreams - Spei Res (Draft Records)



Space in your face of the cosmotechnik kind with go wiggle electronics, fat drums and planet-rockin' beats. 
A satis frigida, distantes-de-synth breakbeat album. What? Well, $.99 Dreams are have gone Latin on your ass so why shouldn't I? The title, Spei Res, roughly translates as "thing of hope". 

There's much to enjoy about this interplanetary musica from Adam Diller (synth, sax, production) and Matt Crane (drums); on the groove level, for starters, because although the mystic moods are cosmic they're usually earthed by Crane's percussion. That said, what elevates it above your average funky beat record is Crane's freer, Jazz-influenced playing which develops on such tunes as Machinator.

Elsewhere, there's Supergredi, which starts in a Jazzy mood before diving into a deep down dirty trench where you're immediately knee deep in nasty funk. The same's true if Disparitas, which tails off brilliantly in free fall with the appearance of timbales sounding as if that jam went on for some time. Brevity is no bad thing, but some of these tracks sound as if they could have benefited from being longer. I'm not complaining, though, because it's better than self-indulgent muso sessions, the like of which only unedited Miles Davis could get away with.

Spes is a stand-out track, starting in open form as an off-kilter drum/synth conversation before settling on a rhythm, but Diller's synth layers drive it forward and far up into the realms of the stars, just as they do on Coegi, another highlight. Whilst we're not exactly in deep space here as far as Out There audio travel is concerned, there's enough outward bound activity going on to keep it interesting 

$.99 Dreams have been around for some time in various formations and made some damned good albums along the way. You can hear most of them here on Bandcamp. 

Cut by Rashad Becker. 400 vinyl copies.
Draft Records

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