bio//
Dreamend is the main musical output of Ryan Graveface, Graveface Records' owner/sole employee and part time guitarist for psychedelic oddballs Black Moth Super Rainbow. Since its’ inception in 2002, Graveface has released albums by Monster Movie (ex-Slowdive), The Loose Salute (Mojave 3 side project), Kid Dakota, Appleseed Cast, Art in Manila (ex-Azure Ray), Octopus Project, BMSR and many more.
The Long Forgotten Friend's 14 songs (10 songs on the cd version) are loosely based on stories and memories of a relative from the far past, whose tragic life has metamorphosed into legend over the course of time. This is music to listen to while driving through abandoned cities and ghost towns, imagining their disintegration. Rather than drums making the melody as on their previous efforts, banjo and vocals are at the foreground of the landscape. The drumming is minimalist, almost spastic and, as always, the guitars are the ghosts. Dreamend has taken a darker, folky, more nightmarish road than before. Some evidence of this can be found on the tracks Your Kiss, Scratch and Deathwatch Carnival 1965. Conversely, they have found themselves with more poppy, almost sing-alongs than ever before (see Are you Waking and The Tulip Staircase).
Appearances by Toto of the Octopus Project and Darren Jackson of Kid Dakota add some outside sounds, while Darren and John Congleton's (see Explosion in the Sky, Modest Mouse, etc) mixing bring them all together.
Listeners are encouraged to buy the vinyl version as it includes the cd version for free, contains 4 extra songs-16 minutes worth of music, a handmade pop-up gatefold by William Schaff (GYBE!, Okkervil River etc), and an extra cd of demos and alternate versions. The cd version comes packaged in a 15pt chipboard gatefold sleeve with a 12 page booklet of photos by Christy Romanick.
Review of ‘Are you Waking’:
“I think it must be the background vocals—something in them reminds me of the most amazing ’50s Motown song never written…this is a beautifully unique voice for dreamend. I feel as though they’ve found a home here and I want to visit and hang obscure photographs of vague familiarity that remind me of what this sounds like. - THE SEVEN FIELDS OF APHELION(BMSR) for paperthinwalls.com