Listening to Recurring Dream from Chicago quartet Implodes is like standing in the eye of a storm whilst still enduring its surrounding tempestuous arms. It is an enveloping concentration of whispering beauty and intensive emotive aural howls which makes an inescapable impact no matter how enriching or corrosive you find the release. The previous albums from the band have investigated and taken inspiration from ‘the deep psychic recesses where our sonic memories first took shape.’ The promo to the new album goes on to declare that ‘With their new album, Recurring Dream, Implodes breathes fresh air. Melodies that were once distant echoes are now suffused with energy and clarity of purpose, submerged rhythms now walk in the light of day.’ That is the band’s intent though maybe not necessarily realised by individual thoughts and emotions the release undoubtedly inspires, it may not ignite the purpose which drove the band to their creativity in the listener but it does trigger an evolving experience of emotion and imagination which marks it as an impressive piece of work.
As immense and intense as it undeniably is, Recurring Dream is a gentle but unrelenting tsunami of sound and intrusive provocation which leaves a feeling of being overloaded rife upon the senses. It brings dissipation to the potency of the creativity and a loosening to the determination and passion to engage fully with its contents and length in one full movement. It is a record beautifully crafted from start to finish though, the opening ambience driven instrumental ‘Wendy 2’ a finely and emotively sculpted dawn to the album which brings the senses and emotions into play with ease and accomplished intrigue. There on in starting with the sonic alchemy of ‘Scattered in the Wind’, the album takes the listener on a long and shifting soundscape which fuses everything from progressive and post rock through to shoegaze and electronic mesmerism. The second song is a bristling wash of sand littered warmth and fiery substance recalling as much the older indie voice of a House Of Love or Felt as it does any metal/ progressive rock clad inspiration, and openly enthralling.
Through tracks such as the somnambulistic ‘Sleepyheads’ with its light sombre drone lilted mesmerism, the exhausting shadow gifted and erosive ‘Necronomics’, and the magnetic ‘You Wouldn’t Know’, the band continues to impress yet equally manages to relinquish the grip achieved across earlier tracks. Individually the songs stand up to demand and get full respect and sure appreciation but already half way in to the album the continuous wear across the release begins to reverse the enthusiasm and patience to take the full journey offered.
Recurring Dream continues in the same manner through to its conclusion, the likes of the murky ‘Ex Mass’, the acoustic led ‘Prisms and the Nature of Light’ which sees the vocals of Emily Elhaj adding their seductive warmth to the acidic mist, and the closing melancholic ‘Bottom of a Well’, all leaving honest appreciation and eagerness for their lone stances but inspiring less enthusiasm within the full uncompromising and discomforting sonic tempest.
It is an album which evokes the listener in numerous ways, which cannot be dismissed, and is majestically composed and realised, but Recurring Dream just does not light any fire for its obvious invention and craft or a want to retake its quest too often.
Pete RingMaster
7/10