There are some musical traditions--ancient ones--that are grounded in the natural soundscape; the everyday sounds of life arranged into patterns, attempts at mimicking the whoosh of wind, the howls of an animal, the crack of thunder, the thump and scrape of a rice mortar. We emerge into the world having been exposed to these sounds, along with the vicissitudes of our mothers' heartbeats, and we connect to them as we grow. To the extent that we can train ourselves to remove subjective notions about music, we can find musical potential in virtually every sound. Some prehistoric ancestor slithered out of the ocean and its perceptions of reality were changed forever. Murky ribbons of light were replaced by the warm glow of the sun, rhythms dampened by seawater became sharp and brazen in the air. These sounds and images from eons ago stamped themselves indelibly into our consciousness and have remained there as we have evolved. The band Implodes has, on their previous albums, tapped into the deep psychic recesses where our sonic memories first took shape. They have played the part of the ancient ancestor, lying submerged in the shallows, waiting to make its gambit onto dry land and into a new world. 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. Implodes does not, however, eschew its heritage. Heaviness abounds. The band has not abandoned the crushing pressure of the deep, dark places. But Recurring Dream breaches the thin membrane that contained its previous efforts and preys unmolested in its new environment. There has always been an organic component to Implodes' music, and not just because the band is comprised of humans. Its music is tied to those very earliest of our sonic traditions, to the sounds of Earth and space and deep water and simple machines. Recurring Dream is about waking up in the dark and witnessing the slow birth of consciousness, still tethered to fantasies and nightmares, and walking into the unknown.
