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Soundpool

Dichotomies & Dreamland

(Aloft; US: 11 Mar 2008; UK: Unavailable)

NYC shoegazers Soundpool tick off all the standard generic checklist items: steady rhythm, ethereally unintelligible vocals, echoes aplenty, and scapes, scapes, scapes.  Drifty and detached, the commingling tracks on Dichotomies & Dreamland threaten constantly to glide away like so many unmoored zeppelins.  Lacking both the impeccable polish of dream-pop standard-bearers Blonde Redhead and the melodic guts of Arts & Crafts second-fiddles Young Galaxy, Soundpool floats on over pre-programmed fields of swaying grass circuits, blissfully rudderless.  There may well be an intriguing band hidden somewhere behind all of these sound washes, but a tad more structure is necessary to tease it out.  Dichotomies & Dreamland is a sharp reminder that to dream, one must first be put to sleep.

Rating:

Ross Langager has been contributing music reviews to PopMatters since early 2008. He has a BA (Honors) in English and a MA in English, both from the University of Alberta in Edmonton. He lives in Toronto, Ontario. He also writes a blog at http://rosslangager.com/ .


Tagged as: soundpool
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