11-27: Lightning Bolt: Hypermagic Mountain
11-20: Wooden Wand and the Vanishi...: The Flood
10-02: ...: Oboroed/Circus Live...
07-04: Need New Body: Where's Black Ben?
04-09: Caribou: The Milk of Human Kindness
10-13: Sonic Youth: Sonic Nurse
10-13: Things Explod...: It's Never Worked Befor...
10-03: Controller.Controller: History
Music Reviews index


11-09: Three...Extremes
10-19: Battle Royale II
10-04: A History of Violence
08-26: Grizzly Man
08-22: The 40 Year-Old Virgin
08-12: The Dukes of Hazzard
08-05: The Devil's Rejects
08-03: The Island
Movie Reviews index


01-06: List: Best/Worst of 2005: Movies
08-28: List: 2004's 50 Best Albums, Part 2
07-02: List: 2004's Best and Worst Movies
04-20: Article: Mikel Ate That CD
04-20: Interview: Half of the Fiery Furnaces
04-17: List: 2004's 50 Best Albums, Part 1
04-08: List: 2003's 20 Best Albums
Features index


Natural Dreamers: Natural Dreamers
Natural Dreamers
Natural Dreamers
Frenetic: 2003

84


The main problem with this sort of group, where members of bigger-name bands create a side project to experiment with subdued guitar noodling is that, more often than not, it's completely self-indulgent and horribly dull to listen to (see also: Storm and Stress), but the Natural Dreamers, two parts Deerhoof and one part Dilute, manage to avoid that problem for the most part in their self-titled debut. The songs keep themselves reasonably short (the longest being three and a half minutes), and interesting and actually catchy enough to make for a pleasant enough listen. The connection to Deerhoof is immediately apparent - instrumental, slightly quieter Deerhoof describes the album reasonably well - but as a group, they create their own sound nicely, rather than relying too much on the similarity to their other bands' sounds. "Diamond Mines" and "The Big Switch" feature complicated but catchy riff repetition, more in the vein of Deerhoof than "Arthur" or "Hot C", which are more random and complex, but still pleasant and fun. The Natural Dreamers' debut is thoroughly enjoyable - a lack of too much variation of sound keeps it from being as excellent as it could be - but it's guaranteed to be the most fun you've had with avant-gardism in a while.


quoth Noah Jackson.



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