Zaumne - Dreams Of Teeth Falling Out Review

HYSTERICS FROM BEHIND A WIDOW'S VEIL

Dreams Of Teeth Falling Out exists within a gossamer of feelings. It's difficult, nigh on impossible to discern. Time is lost as plodding, Victorian movement - like the cover's ghost in a white dress, gliding across floors untouched - collide with modern depictions of relational woe. Dreams, the necessary excuse to such aberrant vacillations. Zaumne's sound, despite finding comparisons elsewhere, maintains unattainable originality. The flows, bedraggled samples, and austere cobweb of Gothic ambience is fascinating, albeit slightly bare and malnourished. In other words, nothing apart from 'What Are Friends For' - with its mirage of Boards Of Canada synthesizers and insistent, Biosphere drum kit - hooks the listener beyond morbid piquancy. Here, on this moody Downtempo affair that borrows from the sulky gravity of Trip-Hop, Zaumne hypnotizes with numerous angles of repetition. Elsewhere, there's typically only one or two (droning synthesizers and oftentimes annoying samples).

Speaking of which, though their persistence mares certain songs like 'Permanent Ink' and 'Upwards,' these uncomfortable vocal samples remind me heavily of Dean Blunt's work; especially The Narcissist II. This is captured most prominently in the brief, and highly effective 'Dream' interludes, wherein a crazed ex-girlfriend leaves menacing phone messages on the brink of collapse. Again, how this all fits into Dreams Of Teeth's character I am unsure, but the collision of temperament behaviors proves stimulating. Hearing such hysteria rattle otherwise stalwart Drone is not a combination one would typically expect. On 'Love Is A Wave,' tongues give way to crushing waves of Noise, seemingly captured over a recontextualized sample of William Basinski's Disintegration Loops. If it's not a sample, it's damn well close to 'd|lp 1.1,' effectively employing Basinski's dire loops for a new age of phobias.