Published on Jun 22, 2006
A Shoreline Dream is the new project from Drop The
Fear’s Ryan Policky. Though prominently guitar-based, this band
still inherits Drop The Fear’s layered psychedelic style and a good
part of its music sounds like a cross between Slowdive and Cocteau
Twins.
This four-track debut EP shows a preponderant
influence of the alternative music scene — both British and
American — of the late 80s/early 90s. The very first cut,
“Projections,” is dark and wonderfully gothic and has the allure of
a Cranes number, but possesses the warmth of Cocteau Twins.
“Saturday Morning,” the second track, begins with a simple alt-folk
lick that sounds like something out of a Throwing Muses or even an
early REM record, developing layers eventually, which elicit
strange and ambiguous images.
And images are what this EP is all about. The ambient
nature of the music gussies up the album with lavish textures that
create mysterious forms of the music: imageries are the very
essence of A Shoreline Dream’s sound. This EP also is full of weird
guitar textures, and the variety in the guitar styles mingles well
with the ethereally doleful sound that is inherent to the band,
making the record very interesting.
The guitars that make the first half of the EP are
harmonious and pretty but turn grimy as the second half begins with
the Swervedriver-styled “Focus The Present,” which lavishes in
languid guitars that are dirty and destructive, topped with the
sense of pallor of an experimental Sonic Youth number, but much
more subtle.
The album ends with the ultimate down-tempo track,
the Radiohead-style “Motherly Advice” that has a mix of the beauty
of the first two numbers and the coarseness of the third. This
sleepy cut pleasantly surprises when it explodes suddenly in the
midst, picking up a grungy riff with Policky’s vocals raising
pitches to match the bombast of the music. The song ends with the
layers of music subsiding gradually, relieving its breathlessness
in small measures.
A Shoreline Dream, though has a completely different
sound from Drop The Fear, still shares the same inspiring effect.
The fluidity in the seemingly difficult complexity of this group’s
music is still as present as in Drop The Fear. This sampler EP of
the yet-to-be-released debut CD is enough of a proof as to what an
amazing act this is, and says magnitudes of what to expect of the
album and the group itself in the future.