Habibi – Dreamachine

“Dreamachine” is the latest full-length album by Habibi, slated for release on May 31st via Kill Rock Stars. It’s their third full-length album, announced with excellent singles such as “On The Road,” “Do You Want Me Now,” and “My Moon.” For those who might not know, Habibi nurtures such a rich and luxurious sound based upon many different but complementary music genres. Perhaps indie rock comes to mind first, but you’ll stumble upon many sonic ingredients borrowed from post-punk, psych-rock, garage rock, noise rock, and alternative. Each composition delivers a different listening experience, but the entire album resonates as a whole. Habibi uses all these additional styles as more than necessary tools to uplift their already luxurious sound to an entirely new level, so this material will unquestionably appeal to anyone even remotely into these music genres.

As soon as you press play, you’ll notice how Habibi thought about everything while writing, composing, arranging, recording, and producing their latest album. Each composition arrives with a perfect structure, garnered with many segments, brilliant ideas, and exceptional orchestrations. As usual, the lead vocals act as a centerpiece, emphasizing everything the remainder of the band tried to achieve with this material. The impressive vocal range commands attention and guides listeners by flawlessly balancing between low, mid, and high notes. Besides these vocal harmonies, the band also incorporated many back vocals and singalongs, ensuring a pleasant listening experience for even the pickiest listeners. In the meantime, generously fuzzy, abrasive, raw guitars serve as a perfect backdrop for all those vocal articulations. The layers of fuzziness showcased through catchy, memorable, addictive riffs perfectly suit all those semi-distorted leads, themes, melodies, harmonies, and other sonic maneuvers. This interplay between lead and rhythm guitars sounds rich and unquestionably highlights every moment in each composition.

Habibi also thought about the rhythm section. You’ll notice how equally complex, vividly hearable, warm-sounding basslines rumble beneath all these guitar layers, offering more than necessary heaviness, clarity, and depth while binding the mentioned orchestrations with drums. The experienced drummer dictates groove and tempo with expertly arranged beats, breaks, fills, and other percussive acrobatics, ensuring that the remainder of the band performs precisely. Every band member plays a significant role in this sonic equation, and their collective performance makes “Dreamachine” such a pleasant sonic voyage worth repeating over and over again. Tracks like “On The Road,” “In My Dreams,” “Do You Want Me Now,” “Interlude,” “My Moon,” and “Fairweather Friend” are standouts, but you should check out the entire album because the remainder of this material sounds equally good. Habibi knows how to merge so many different but complementary music genres, so their songs always sound fresh, unique, and unpredictable. You’ll fall in love with “Dreamachine” immediately. The album is coming out on May 31st, so head to their Bandcamp page and order this excellent album on vinyl.