At more the harder edged of the gaze spectrum are The Lucid Dream who formed in Carlisle, Cumbria, in January 2008. Following a raft of successful independent releases the five piece retreated to an abandoned 15th Century Mill at Erbistock, North Wales in Spring 09, to record their debut EP. Using the natural reverb of the age-old stone structure, along with producer Ross Halden. Rather like recent noise making success story A Place To Bury Strangers or early Black Rebel Motorcycle club, their Ep’s opener ‘I Got the Devil’ initially utilise a menacing rhythms reminiscent of The Jesus and Mary Chain, fractured sneering vocals redolent of Sucide, and a raft of fuzz peddles borrowed from Kevin Shields’ shed. Careering into view above static whiplash guitar licks, all Iggy and The Stooges-esque sneers and primal rhythms in 3D stereo, so far impressive, but ever so suspiciously derivative. But crucially elsewhere this EP’s sonic adventurism shows that The Lucid Dream possess a subtlety that reveals a more layered and complex psychedelic pedigree that harks back to Space Man 3 and a time twenty years ago now when British acts used to spend their time in their bedrooms creating vast multi layered drones allied to yearning dream-like vocals.
So the howling sparsely confessional ‘Jesus Say My Prayers’ sounds like Jason Pierce being deprived of all of his hi fi studio technology, the insistent drums giving way to a vast expanses, while the spiralling guitars and heartbroken melancholia of ‘I Feel So Lonesome (I’m Blue For You)’ sounds like Suicide given a modern respray, while stately closer ‘The Twilight End’ with its caressing guitars and psych-rhythm section that spins like a abandoned carousel ride, harks back to the sublime work of long forgotten cult band Ride. Right down to their vaguely clichéd gazing moniker, The Lucid Dream are submerged in the history of the genre, students of those dusty cult records from the early 90s, but unlike some copyists of late, they have dreamed up four tracks that use their clear influences as a platform to produce a sound that is heartily welcome, and pushing toward something individual and genuinely quite exciting. So not the finished article just yet but The Lucid Dream are a prospect worthy of your attention. The E.P will be followed up in mid summer with the single release of ‘In Your Eyes’, backed with re-mix of the said track by Richard Norris (Beyond The Wizard’s Sleeve/The Grid), who has re-mixed the likes of The Chemical Brothers, Doves and Primal Scream.
