Dreamscent – Burning Days

If you’ve been paying close attention to what’s happening on the contemporary music scene, then you’ve probably noticed how many artists and bands infuse shoegaze or dream pop elements into their music. While many of them succeed in their experiments, the remainder do not seem quite convincing, mainly because they either experiment too much, mimic something greats released forty years ago, or simply do not understand how shoegaze and dream pop music work. Thankfully, Dreamscent is one of those bands that found a sweet spot where literally any genre works to their advantage. With “Burning Days,” their debut full-length album released on April 10th, they showcase how even longstanding music genres like shoegaze can still sound fresh, unique, innovative, and exciting without sacrificing their primary sonic direction, infusing too many other styles, or experimenting too much. With some of the finest properties borrowed from music genres like alternative, indie rock, or dream pop, they’ve created a comprehensive collection of songs that resonate with beautiful vocal harmonies, lush guitar works, a groovy rhythm section, and that calm, soothing, relaxing, ethereal atmosphere that all shoegaze fans adore. Perhaps Dreamcast use all those additional sonic ingredients as more than necessary enhancements, accentuations, decorations, and other details, but they remain loyal to the primary sonic direction. Although this album leans towards modern sound, as the band incorporated qualities that meet all the trends of contemporary music production, you’ll still notice a subtle touch of nostalgia infused into these songs, reminiscent of the late nineties to mid-nineties sound. Lyrically, the band writes songs about introspection, tension, and resilience, themes that perfectly suit their sonic output. Throughout the entire album, they explore various sentiments, moods, situations, and circumstances, making “Burning Days” a highly relatable material that will resonate with the broader auditorium. This album is packed with everything you ever needed from shoegaze music, but, as is usually the case, there’s more than meets the eye.

As soon as you press play, you’ll notice that these folks poured so much time and effort into their debut. Each composition arrives with a tastefully assembled structure, fully stacked with many profoundly detailed segments, brilliant ideas, and outstanding musicianship. With the initial crunchy guitar works of “Don’t Mind,” you’re entering into a lush, captivating Dreamscent’s world built upon marvelous chord progressions, harmonies, and themes, beautiful vocal performance, groovy basslines, and well-accentuated rhythmic patterns. The band immediately invites you onto an epic voyage through the expansive sonic universe where each vocal, sonic, and rhyhtmic maneuver has its place and purpose. They continue at the same pace with “Burn Through Me,” a song with such beautiful vocal harmonies. Both female and male vocalists sound fascinating here, as their voices merge together into hypnotic harmony that immediately wraps around your listening apparatus and refuses to let go. The guitars gradually go from jangly, angular chord progressions to heavily distorted riffs, slowly expanding the sound into a heavier territory without sacrificing shoegaze ambiance. The reverb plays a significant role here, as they are heavily drenched in this effect for that extra psychedelic, ethereal, cave-like sound. You’ll notice how the band uses this effect during “Pins And Needles,” a short atmospheric composition that serves as an interlude for the next song. Shoegaze bands usually do not pay a lot of attention to the rhythm section while exploring dream pop sound, but that’s not the case here. You’ll notice how the rhythm section plays a significant role during the “Red String,” a song that seamlessly balances between shoegaze and dream pop sound. The bass guitar is cleverly incorporated right beneath the guitars, but it is vividly hearable in the mix. It provides more than necessary heaviness, clarity, and depth while serving as a binding element between guitars and drums. The excellent drumming performance offers dynamics, groove, and detail with cleverly assembled and flawlessly performed beats, breaks, fills, and other percussive acrobatics, without sounding too flashy.

“Photograph” and “Wrinkle” exemplify how the rhythm section acts as a counterbalance to the guitars. While the guitars continuously levitate between those jangly, angular, polished maneuvers and abrasive, heavily distorted riffs, the bass guitar and drums continuously bring depth, detail, clarity, and heaviness to this song. Everything is so well-balanced in the mix, making these two songs standouts of the album. Dreamscent are masters in crafting atmospheric songs, and “Lost In A Dream” is one of those tracks that carries everything you ever needed from shoegaze, alternative, indie, and dream pop music. The vocals are so soulful, emotive, and powerful, guitars resonate with generous servings of distortion and reverb, while the rhythm section brings tremendous groove. Each layer has its place and purpose here, working to the advantage of such a beautiful song. This epic sonic journey ends with “Moving Forward,” such an incredible closing song that forces you to spin this brilliant debut album all over again. Besides being one of the finest songs on this release, it also showcases Dreamscent’s tremendous songwriting, composing, arranging, and producing abilities, as the band poured all their marvelous ideas and outstanding musicianship into it. “Burning Days” is, without any doubt, a top contender for the best shoegaze album this year. With all those beautiful vocal harmonies, lush guitar works, warm-sounding basslines, and groovy beats, it packs everything you ever needed from a shoegaze album. If you love your shoegaze music cleverly assembled, flawlessly performed, and packed with the finest lyricism and sonic maneuvers, “Burning Days” is a masterpiece you definitely do not want to miss.