I’m fairly familiar with Alien Dream’s output, having obtained the first two albums and one of the Hawkfest 2003 samplers – though I don’t know "Eleven Realms of Night", the third album, at all. As usual, this is an album of instrumental psychedelic space rock, possibly influenced by Hawkwind, Gong, Hillage, Ozrics, and Here & Now (and probably in that order, too). Alien Dream hail from Southern Australia, being the brainchild of Michael Blackman. His highest-profile gig has to have been the Hawkfest 2003, for which Alien Dream co-opted Lost Druid Tom Byrne; and Michael is also a recording member of Space Mirrors and features extensively on their recently-released CD “The Darker Side Of Art”.
Magick In Maya is slower-paced and revolves around mellow keyboards with celestial sounding loops and some occasionally Eastern-scale lead guitar. Three minutes in, a descending chord sequence works as the backdrop to some lovely lead guitar which is much more organic sounding than MB’s usual tone. This track also boasts some great delay / panning effects and phased keyboards.
Alien Dreamscape (a familiar sounding title - it was on the Hawkfest EP, I see!) is a more upbeat number, though still mid-paced, with the piano-like quality of the bass really creating a spacious atmosphere in the first minute or so. Then there is a transition into the chorus riff which is quite reminiscent of Electric Tepee, and particularly the song ‘Secret Agent’. When the main riff returns, it emphasizes to what extent Alien Dream’s music is dependent on Michael’s simple, melodic leadlines for interest; though the synth playing is possibly better, the guitar is almost always the lead instrument.
The Gathering sets a darker mood with a plangent lead melody played on keyboards and a muted, distorted strum on the guitar complementing the minor chord progression. This yields to some spacey, echoed synth parts and a looping lead guitar, still in a minor key. There is some welcome variation in the percussion at 3:49, with the addition of a tom-tom voice, but the passage doesn’t progress further, inculcating the feeling that the song goes on for too long.
Dark Lord’s Whisper sounds as though it may have been inspired by some of Alan Davey’s songwriting. It features a tense descending riff played in unison by bass and keyboards, and then by bass and guitar. It takes until 2:30 for the lead guitar to surface, and it meanders along for a minute or so before the track takes a more pastoral turn with arpeggiated guitar chords in the middle of the mix, below the burbling synths. This stuff has the same problem as a lot of other wholly instrumental music – it’s hard to differentiate the songs. What you get as a result is mood music.
Samsara, the title track, harks back strongly to the material on Dogon Dance (the 2nd Alien Dream CD) with a slow, spacious chord progression overlaid with dual lead guitar and synths – though the minor chords here induce a melancholic air. As with a number of other tracks, there is a songlike structure at play, with a readily identifiable middle eight. These just happen to be songs without vocals.
In The Void introduces an interesting riff, but an all-too-familiar rhythmic backing. Just as I was thinking about stifling a yawn, the drum parts go into double time to make this the paciest number on the CD so far. Again, there are some great-sounding keyboards and synths here, a very “drum machine” sound and heavily compressed lead guitars. How blessed is the saxophone that breezes in at 4:30 to introduce some variety into this template – which I accept is very successful in smaller doses, but without vocals isn’t differentiated enough to support the length of the compositions.
More minor keys in Journey Through Time and some pleasantly squelchy wah guitar chords initially promise a departure, but here’s another track that looks like it’s going to mark out new territory and then just kind of stays where it is. However, to focus on a positive aspect, this exploration of minor chord progressions is I think a new development and a move forward from Alien Dream’s earlier material.
Light Speed Damage kicks off with the freshest piece of music yet: a rotary-speaker effected synth, plunging bassline and percussive guitar chords move beyond the Alien Dream envelope. This is also one of the stronger pieces structurally. It’s admittedly not King Crimson-like in terms of complexity, but has tightly defined intro, verse, chorus and middle eight sections.
As if enthused by the last song, Demons Or Angels maintains the faster pace with some very Brock-inspired veils of guitar noise and a succeeding riff that’s pure Hawkwind. There are even some Daveyesque bass runs to accompany the utterly Hawkwind synth parts and voices. This is in some ways not dissimilar from the preceding material, but I think works better because the familiarity of these elements allows the listener to focus in on, and get into the groove. But it’s also a busier arrangement than most here, and all the better for it.
When Gods Dream is quite a contrast, reverting to the snail’s pace and wide open soundscape that characterizes much of this music. There is almost a sensation that the song is dragging, because not enough is happening between the bass drum beats. However, I see that I was being set up for that, as the pace suddenly doubles at the 2-minute mark and MB throws down quite a decent rhythmic hard rock workout, adorned with his normal peals of melodic lead guitar. Now this has been done perfectly; he fades the song out at around 4 minutes, not overstaying his welcome for a second.
The Gathering (a slight return) brings us back to the palm-muted overdriven strumming while synths coil and spiral overhead. It’s a good intro which then moves into what might be exactly the same as the earlier rendition of this number, although a drawn-out guitar solo does more than just stitch pleasant melodies onto the fabric of the song.
The last track is Tribal Astral Realms, and I think a smidgeon of kon-tiki tom-tom is what makes this tribal. It’s a more distant, ambient number with reverbed keyboard and guitar parts putting this out into territory not previously explored by Alien Dream – perhaps reminiscent of newer space rock synth explorers. A darker and more vibrant section opens up after 5 minutes, harnessing the tribal beat and hitching it to slabs of distorted rhythm guitar and vintage synth effects.
So this is a highly accomplished CD which does not quite hit the spot on account of the ideas in it being drawn out to excessive lengths. The sound of this CD is incredibly lush and very well produced (if somewhat over-compressed for my taste). Michael Blackman is at least as good a producer / engineer as he is a musician, and he is a pretty hot musician…but…the songs are not complex affairs, and given this fact, they tend to go on too long. Each individual passage once established doesn’t then go anywhere, and Michael has generally made these passages too lengthy, resulting in them sometimes outstaying their welcome.
But in sitting down to review this, I was listening *to* and concentrating *on* the album, and I don’t think that’s the right way to approach it. This would be great music to have on the car stereo when driving, or playing (not too quietly!) in the background when doing something else. In that way the overextension of themes would not be the drawback that I’ve made it out to be. I said earlier that this was mood music, and if taken on that basis, it’s highly successful. What I’d really like to hear is the next Alien Dream album being made with a band or at least one other writer, and preferably with vocals to really develop the songs.
For more information, and to order this CD, check out the Alien Dream website.
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