Dream Pop

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Dream Pop is another one of those genres that doesn’t derive from a particular musical discipline, such as country-rock, blues-rock, jazz-rock, etc. Nor does it describe a new musical hybrid, in the sense of funk, or heavy metal. It’s not about
an attitude like punk, or noise pop, or low fi. Artists that have been pigeonholed as dream pop are spread far and wide, and encompass many different and unrelated styles.

Yet dream pop is also one of those genres, like emo, that con be identified in an instant. It’s the kind of music that’s hard to put a finger on, but you know it when you hear it.

It is, however, a term in widespread use, so it is referring to a certain common and crucial element that can be found in all bands classifiable as dream pop. Sonically, its touchstones are breathy, airy vocals, frequently sung by a woman, or a male/female harmonic duo atop heavily processed guitars and synthesizers, given production that lends a shimmer and a sheen to the sound, creating an ethereal otherworldliness to the recording.

It shares much with shoegaze, space rock, twee pop, and noise pop, but is distinct from each in that it avoids overly abrasive textures for the most part, relying instead in establishing a general ambience of languid disassociation. It’s escapist and pretty.

The landmark band generally given credit for inventing the form are the Cocteau Twins in the mid-80’s, who relied on lush soundscapes and glistening female vocals with cryptic, dreamy lyrics. The guitar rock and gentle sad ambience of Galaxie 500 gave additional shape to the form in the late 80’s; also a major influence were the subgenre crossing shoegaze/noise pop pioneers, My Bloody Valentine.

In the 1990’s these influences and others were absorbed and reinterpreted by a second wave of bands on both sides of the Atlantic, and within continental Europe. By the late 1990’s the style peakwed, although it remains popluar to this day. Most dream pop has been recorded for independent labels, although more and more of it appears on major label releases, too.

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Some important/influential dream-pop artists/songs include:

1. Cocteau Twins: Lorelei
The Cocteau Twins were formed in Grangemouth, Scotland, in 1979. “Lorelei” comes from their third album, Treasure, released in 1984. It’s as good a marker as the starting point for dream pop as anything else, and it established the band’s trademark sound: Elizabeth Fraser's high register, honeyed vocals, steady percussion fills, big guitar, and echo. The band released nine albums during a 1982-1996 recording career; they’re all pretty-good to pretty-great, and represent one aspect of dream pop better than anyone else. They also helped establish the dream-pop sound associated with 4AD records.

2. Mazzy Star: Fade Into You
Mazzy Star’s 1993 left-field near-hit is a slow waltz featuring Hope Sandoval’s wistful vocals and David Roback’s atmospheric strumming and reverb-laden fills. Mazzy Star’s dream pop had a vaguely darker edge to it, relying often on semi-hallucinatory guitar effects. “Fade Into You is from their best album, So Tonight That I Might See, which reached the top-40 in 1994.

3. Galaxie 500: Fourth Of July
Enigmatic, dreamy, wistful, minimalist, dirge-like, sleepy, somber; Galaxie 500’s music has been called many things. Together, these terms do pretty much capture the soul of the band, a Boston-based group which released three albums in a brief recording career spanning 1988-1990. Though they never rose above minor cult status within their day, they have now been recognized as a pivotal post-punk indie band, and important keystone in dream pop’s development. “Fourth of July” kicks of their debut, This Is Our Music. Dean Wareham, a New Zealand native, would later form Luna.

4. Lush: For Love
Lush, a London band led by Miki Berenyi and Emma Anderson, were a shoe gaze-dream pop band of the early 90’s that developed a considerable cult on both sides of the Atlantic. “For Love” is from their 1992 debut EP, and is a jangly number turned into a dreamscape via the super multilayered guitar effects and processing by the chief architect of the Cocteau Twins’ sound, reverb loving guitarist Robin Guthrie.

5. Moose: This River Will Never Run Dry
Moose was another early 90’s shoe gaze band that evolved out of that subgenre and into this one. “This River Will Never Run Dry” is from their 1992 debut EP, and is a blessed-out sunburst of sound. By the time of their first album, the shoegaze textures were toned down in favor of a more whimsical pop sense that crosses further into dream-pop territory. The band never found an audience, and broke up in 1996.

6. Red House Painters: Down Colorful Hill
Red House Painters is primarily one man, Mark Kozelek, a Midwesterner who was addicted to drugs by the age of ten before going to rehab, and wrote bare, naked, soul searching songs. Red House Painters began life in 1989 after a move to San Francisco after a few years in Atlanta. “Down Colorful Hill” is from the six-song 1992 album of the same name, and is an 11-minute dreammare through a fairly haunted soul.

7. His Name Is Alive: Baby Fish Mouth
From Livonia, MI, and named after class notes on Abraham Lincoln, His Name Is Alive has been making records since 1990 and is still at it today. The band was formed by multi instrumentalist/producer William Defever while he was still in high school. “Baby Fish Mouth” leads off the first album from this band, Mouth By Mouth, and is a crackpot sugar confection, with a slightly sinister bent.

8. My Bloody Valentine: Come In Alone
My Bloody Valentine was the flagship shoegaze band of the early 90’s, and their 1991 masterpiece Loveless is a touchstone for much shoe gaze, dream pop, noise pop and even space rock. “Come In Alone” is a narcotic soundscape with gorgeous vocals, perhaps the closest to dream pop on the album. There never was a follow-up to Loveless, the band just evaporated, despite a sizable audience in the UK and America.

9. Pale Saints: A Thousand Stars Burst Open
Pale Saints were a quasi-space rock band from leeds that also qualified as dream pop. Among their producers was John Fryer, who had worked with Cocteau Twins, and sonically, they shared some similarities. “A Thousand Stars Burst Open” closes their 1992 sophomore album, In Ribbons, arguably their best. The band released one more album in 1994 before breaking up.

10. Mercury Rev: Bronx Cheer
Buffalo, NY collective Mercury Rev has been producing some of the best dream pop/noise pop of the past decade and a half. “Bronx Cheer” is from Boces, a 1993 release that consolidated the disparate influences of their previous album Yerself Is Steam, and progresses from it, mixing languid dream pop with bursts of textured guitar explosions. “Bronx Cheer” is a lament; it is also a fine example of the underlying vulnerability that lurks just beneath the surface of much dream pop.

11. Ride: Vapour Trail
Ride were My Bloody Valentines biggest rivals in the shoegaze days, with their debut a big seller in England. They differed from the other shoe gaze bands particularly in their reach of influences, their music has shades going all the way back to mid-60’s Byrds. This gave their dream pop a distinctly psychedelic flavor. “Vapour Trail” is a chiming guitar number with funereal strings, and closes their debut and best album, Nowhere.

12. The Boo Radleys: Lazarus
The Boo Radleys, from Liverpool, were a pivotal band that bordered on shoe gaze and dream pop, before veering off in a convincing power-pop direction. “Lazarus” was released as an EP in 1993, and bcame a minor alternative rock hit in America. It works up its atmosphere by utilizing a reggae/dub beat in addition to its washes of sound. The band’s entire 1990’s album is fairly well acclaimed, but they broke up in 1999.

13. Mojave 3: Love Songs On The Radio
Originally named just Mojave, this band is an offshoot of shoe gaze band Slowdive, led by Neil Halstead and two other members. Their sound is like a less Western-sounding Mazzy Star, a dreamier Cowboy Junkies, or a countrified Galaxie 500. Ask Me Tomorrow, from 1996, is heir debut album and masterpiece, and includes this song, a hushed, echoed, drowsy classic.

14. Medicine: Never Click
A Los Angeles area dream pop band led by guitarist Brad Laner, Medicine has more overtly avant-garde influences than many of the other dream pop bands, drawing from Captain Beefheart, Throbbing Gristle, Yoko Ono, and The Residents while also utilizing lessons learned from My Bloddy valentine, and throwing in some Pet Sounds as well. “Never Click” is from their 1993 high-point and sophomore effort, The Buried Life.

15. Single Gun Theory: Words Written Backward
Single Gun Theory sounded like a cross between the Cocteau Twins and Dead Can Dance, and incorporated proto-trip-hop and ambient elements into their sensual brand of dream pop. They also plundered the world for sound snippets, be they scratchy foreign radio reports, calls to prayer, Turkish devotional singing, Indian sounding instrumentation. Unique and danceable (a rarity with dream pop), they deserve more recognition than they’ve received.

16. Moonbabies: The Orange Billboard
Moonbabies are from Sweden, and specialize in a dream pop that is equal parts My Bloody Valentine and Miranda Sex Garden. Led by multi-instrumentalists Ola Frick and Carina Johanssen, they began their career singing on the streets of Copenhagen before landing a deal. Their albums are moody and psychedelic. The Orange Billboard, from 2004, is their finest offering to date, a super-sweet, warm-sounding mix of electronic with very simple song structure, bathed in a variety of noise-pop elements.

17. Rex: New Sun
From Maine, Rex is a mix of slowcore, emo, and dream pop not dissimilar from Red House Painters. C, their 1996 sophomore album, established them as critic’s favorites, although their albums didn’t generate many sales. Stretching out 70 minutes, and passing through a variety of brooding textures, it’s centerpiece is the lush, 10-minute, “New Sun”.

18. Lisa Germano: Trouble
Lisa Germano originally got her start playing with John Mellencamp in the late 80’s on his Lonesome Jubilee album. Adept at fiddle and violin as well as singing, she made her solo album debut in 1991. Geek The Girl, from 1994, is her best album, and the smokey, smouldering “Trouble” one of the best songs on it. The album itself is an autobiographical song cycle about emotional and sexual coming of age.

19. Luna: California (All the Way)
Formed by Galaxie 500 leader dead Wareham after the bitter break-up of that band, Luna took the same basic approach, but sped up the tempos and rhythms, and the instrumental interplay is more complex than the former band. “California (All the Way)” leads off their 1994 album, Bewitched, arguably their best. Rondezvous, from 2004, is their most recent effort.

20. Ivy: The Best Thing
New York-based Ivy came together through an ad in the Village Voice placed by multi-instrumentalist Andy Chase. Joined by singer/songwriter Adam Schlesinger and Parisian Dominique Durand, the band produced a trip-hop flavored dream pop. Apartment Life was one of the standout albums of 1997, a mix of ethereal sonic texture and 60’s style pop, without sacrificing a distinctly modern edge.

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