His second release for Planet Mu this year, Dream On is a proper full-length outing for Ital's Daniel Martin-McCormick and a much more substantial record than the popular and critically acclaimed Hive Mind.
On Dream On, Martin-McCormick takes his house and techno experiments even further, deconstructing sunny chords, laid-back drum shuffle and rhythmic vocal loops and threading them with a rich psychodrama of delirious textures, tidal chords and uneasy roughness and dissonance. Having spent over 20 weeks on the road since the completion of Hive Mind, Martin-McCormick reflects the raw energy of the live show and the touring mindset: the heady, dream-feel of house, cut with both dub's fracturing smear and an understanding of the power of distortion, honed from years working in DIY and noise.
"Despot" starts with a trancey bassline punctuated with off-key vocal stabs, later brutally pried apart with seasick, pitch-shifting chords. The album's longest track, it's a powerful opener. The mix of stuttering vocal loops, aqueous chords and frantic drums on "Boi" is tainted with sorrow and loss underpinned by a nervous energy, always feeling like it's going to topple in on itself; "Eat Shit" is broken and distressed techno in miniature, employing distortion and echo for shimmering splinters of noise over rough, murky percussion.
The dark center of the album, "Enrique," strips things back to a cavernous ambience with molasses-slow vocals and a heartbeat drum, building into pulsing tones and scratching noise pulled across the spectrum. Another miniature, "Housecapella," is deep house smudged and deconstructed into weightlessness. "What a Mess" sounds like music rotting--epic, wilting chords, soaring melodies and hysterical vocals run through curdling effects. "Deep Cut" finishes by rubbing warm, emotional deep house tones, shuffling drums and claps against harsh electric guitar-like drones. Dream On takes its listeners out of the ordinary and drops them into Ital's dislocated dance.
