Caught in the Carousel

Dredg

The Pariah, The Parrot, The Delusion
Ohlone Recordings/ILG

Dredg

Dictionaries define the word "band" as instrumentalists not including string players, or a group of musicians playing popular music for dancing, or otherwise a range of frequencies between two limits. I would like to offer an arguably more appropriate definition and call it The Pariah, The Parrot, The Delusion—the fourth full length offering from Dredg. If you were to take Gavin Hayes' soaring vocals, Drew Roulette's finessing both bass and moog, Mark Engles' masterful guitar and Dino Campanella's brilliant drum and keyboard work on their own, you might be left with something that you could whistle to or bang on with for a moment. However, when you put all the parts together, you come up with the 18 amazing songs that make up this incredible album. It's four people creating one sound, which picks up where Roxy Music's Avalon or Brian Eno's Here Come the Warm Jets left off.

On "Ireland" Hayes sings that "there's nothing more." I beg to differ—Dredg has only just begun. The opener, "Pariah" blends rich textures that give way to ruthless guitar riffs, while "Light Switch" manages to be both primitive and intuitive. Then you roll into "Gathering Pebbles," which sews melodies into an unforgiving guitar/drum/bass assault. Every track has a madly wonderful and sometimes heavy foundation, which play against melodies and lyrics that will leave you pondering the wonder of it all. Throughout this "letter to the listener" style of an album, evocative vocals mingle with emotionally intense music that leaves you with the sense that the members of Dredg simultaneously reached into the ether to pull down the 18 brilliant tracks that make up this effort. The result is one sound, which is the true definition of a band.

Rating Scale:
4.5/5 OI's!!
OI, OI, OI, OI, O!!

—Peter Hamm