Rockin Our Turntable: D R E A M E N D
By Jon Graef in Arts & Entertainment on Sep 7, 2010 7:00PM
Graveface Records has had a little bit of a rough time lately, what with having most of stuff in its Logan Square-based storage space destroyed in late summer flooding. But if the label, which is still accepting donations, can take any consolation, it's in this fact: So I Ate Myself, Bite By Bite, the latest release from label head Ryan Graveface's solo alias Dreamend, is an unusually ruminative listen. With instrumentation that relies heavily on banjos, bells, acoustic guitar and bass, Bite has an autumnal feel that's perfect for the current end-of-summer, beginning-of-fall seasonal transition.
So I Ate Myself, Bite By Bite can’t exactly be described as folk music, since electronic textures tinge the likes of “Aching Silence,” whose buzzing synthesizer gives the plaintive bluegrass-folk tune a spooky, haunted house atmosphere. Similarly, “Where You Belong,” is basically Neutral Milk Hotel’s “Holland, 1945” slowed-down and given a percussion-free, electro lo-fi makeover.
Most of Bite By Bite recalls Jeff Mangum at his most cryptically obsessive, with Graveface mixing textures from disparate genre sources to create a record with a unique sense of songcraft and narrative. Most of the fun is in trying to decipher the contours -- sonic or otherwise -- that Graveface lays out for his listeners. (The press notes state that Bite is about a killer and the thought process behind that person's actions. From what I can gather, the character here is more active than a Camus anti-hero, but not quite as shit-nuts crazy as, say, a Patrick Bateman.)
By invoking Mangum, we’ve perhaps unintentionally insinuated that Bite By Bite is a masterpiece. It isn’t. It does, however, do a damn fine job of defining its sonic milieu, one that’s both warmly inviting and deeply disturbing. So put on D R E A M E N D’s latest as you’re enjoying Chicago’s brief, breezy respite from the summer heat. Just watch out for the guy playing the banjo and singing about magnesium lights. You just can’t be too sure what he’s thinking.