EP Review: Dreamers – Dreamers
2 min read
Brooklyn power-trio Dreamers has just dropped their self-titled debut EP and it’s a tight, 4-track set of Strokes-ian garage punk with an irresistibly sun-dappled pop sensibility. Rising from the ashes of their almost-famous mid-‘00s quartet Motive, frontman Nick Wold along with bassist Nelson and drummer Chris Bagamery convened from as far as Seattle and Maryland in New York’s hippest borough to form the current 3-piece lineup.
Opening with the post-punk/’60s-pop hybrid of lead single Wolves, the EP harnesses a raw energy and immediacy only achievable by 3 dudes heading into a room with no other agenda than to simply rock the hell out. While this sounds like a formula that’s been beaten into submission over the years, the 3-pronged attack of vocal harmonies and subtle electronic flourishes set Dreamers apart from the thousands of other bands whose debut EPs do the exact same thing with less than remarkable results.
The bouncy swing of No Love sounds like Nirvana giving a simultaneous salute to both T-Rex and the Beach Boys with its stadium-sized riffing punctuated by saccharine vocal layering and a fuzzed out guitar solo that would leave Jack White shaking in his alligator-skin boots. The influence of Julian Casablancas and co. might be worn a little too conspicuously on the sleeve of latest single Waste My Night but its piano/synth-driven bridge and carousing singalong closing chorus manage to deftly circumvent any accusations of being too derivative.
The furious downstrokes and time-signature changes in closer My Little Match border on the ambitiousness of prog-rock in ways that few, if any, other Brooklyn acts would dare to tread. Unself-conscious of losing any “indie-cred”, Dreamers manage to this both unapologetically and with surprisingly effective results that sound like a newly unearthed relic the type of ‘90s alt-rock so many have tried to recreate with varying degrees of success. Dreamers proves to be a solid debut and with an LP on the way, it will be fascinating to see where the trio go from here.
