Dream Boat - Visions (2010) [Amdiscs] // Grade: B+

While most of the general music listening population will continue to regard witch house as an extreme niche—that is if the genre has even yet crossed their path—anyone who has spent time exploring the dark artistry realizes it is a sound whose definition is growing by the day. Many acts are forgoing obscurity and willingly stepping into the light to show the public this is bigger than spliced clips on Vimeo and ungooglable names.

Rhode Island’s Dream Boat seems poised to be the next name in line to join Balam Acab and oOoOO as successful crossover acts, as likely to be discussed by readers of FACT as witch house fans. Following their Fevers EP/tape (which included a cover of oOoOO’s “No Summer4U”), Dream Boat release a collection of swiftly trudging mammoth dance tracks titled Visions. If zombies had a club to call home, Visions would be looped on repeat. The sounds are dense, but the pace is pushed, a thick stew stirred with muscle. “Young & Fine” with its repetitive vocal line “these visions keep me up at night” is dark dance at its finest, minimal synth tones alternating with quivering shakes. The R&B warbling “Rosary” is accompanied by a Silk Flowers remix that turns the seasick and drowning tones to atmospheric synths.

Amidst the dance beats, Dream Boat present moments of subdued storytelling. Faint jazz tones carry “Coals”, an eerie soundtrack for exploring an abandoned speakeasy, the voices of the former patrons drifting softly overhead. The 13-minute “You Left” is a journey of the trapped and finally freed. A woman’s voice sings under layers of crackle, then stops abruptly, followed by five minutes of the crunch and pit-er-pat of walking. A destination is finally reached and the track ends with what sounds like CocoRosie tromping through a bog in the company of a wandering guitar minstrel. It requires multiple listens, at first hard to grasp, but eventually beautiful in its complexity.

Dream Boat’s Visions is a closet of curiosities, intriguing, full of depth and not to be passed by.

- Scrooge McFuck