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Dream The Electric Sleep: Beneath The ...

Alternative Progressive Rock

3.5/5.0

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Mutiny Records
Words: Craig Hartranft
Added: 14.07.2016

Lexington Kentucky is not the first place I would think of for fostering alternative or progressive rock. Country maybe. Maybe some hillbilly bluegrass. But not prog. Yet that's where Dream The Electric Sleep calls home. They arrive with their third album Beneath The Dark Wide Sky.

Dream The Electric Sleep

According to supplied press material, the new album is said to be a departure from previous works. Which doesn't mean much to me as I've never heard of the band before this album. On their Facebook page they suggest their influences to be Pink Floyd, Genesis, Philip Glass, Peter Gabriel, King Crimson, U2, Rush, to name only a few. I can get some of that.

They remind me of a mash up of Pink Floyd, U2, and Muse. There's an ocean of riffage in most every song, then peppered by Matt Page Gilmour-like soaring solos. but you really need listen for them, because sometimes they simply creep up on you and you may miss them. Then there's his vocals which are clean and melodic, but also emotional and incessant. The next thing you hear are the drum. The bass is nearly lost in the mix. But, bottom line, what you mostly hear throughout the album is the roar of riffage, making both Dream The Electric Sleep and the album heavily guitar forward. Whether that's a good thing or not will depend upon how you hear them.

One other thing that I noticed about the songs was that they weren't all that catchy or accessible. Unlike a U2 and others, there's not a whole lot of engaging melody or groove to the DTES sound. Perhaps these are more victims of the crushing wall of riffage. I think if I didn't like lead guitar work, I probably would have simply passed on Beneath The Dark Wide Sky. But I listened nonetheless, but likely won't be listening again. Check out their videos you may feel differently.

Dream The Electric Sleep - Flight

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I think if I didn't like lead guitar work, I probably would have simply passed on Beneath The Dark Wide Sky. But I listened nonetheless, but likely won't be listening again. Check out their videos you may feel differently.

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By now it's old news. Everybody in the prog universe knows: Dream Theater got the band back together. Drummer and founding member Mike Portnoy returned to his Dream Theater family to celebrate their 40th ... [ Read More ]