seriously...words would disobey any attempt to express the fragility, hebephrenia and warmth of this music
somewhere hovering over 3 years ago i began an itinerant, almost blindfolded hunt about the greater record stores of toledo and ann arbor, terribly disdainful of my own life and stoic as to its outcome, embalming my self-worth and esteem within the vestments and rewards of music, finding myself only slightly appeased (on any significant level) when stumbling across something remarkable. i was denuded of internet access and wary of accessing any of the computers within campus labs, so i began blindly purchasing things for their aesthetic qualities, finding albums that had unique covers, wondering what the music behind that artwork signified, where it went, what minor world it conjured for itself. fortuitously, it was with this haphazard method that i became ingratiated to the company of this heat, united states of america, susan christie, jean-claude vannier and dreamies. glazing over the artwork - which at the time looked as if to be some ludicrous mock-up of a cereal box - observing the white, hollowed out head that contained the words "program 10" and "program 11" within its respective hemispheres. i listened to the album before reading the inserts that accompanied it, and i'm still immeasurably happy that i conducted things in such a manner. appropriately, this music does affect a state that resembles the logic and pathology of a dream; ambient and electronic noises merge with an acoustic guitar and samples taken from a transistor radio - somewhere among the fog and density trembles a small, double-tracked, cracked alabaster voice; and though the lyrics are inscrutably recited, nearly obscured by the atmosphere, somehow this all makes perfect sense.
as with most "lost" albums, this one has a story behind it. dreamies is the work of one man, bill holt, who upon hearing the beatles "white album," emerged from a suburban coma, quit his reputable job (allegedly at a fortune 500 company) and assembled an acoustic guitar, sampling device and one of the first commercially available moog synthesizers. his aims weren't particularly modest, as he intended to make a continuation of the song "revolution number 9" from the "white album," composing two side-long musical suites (26 minutes each) that take the structural device of the infamous, widely abjured lennon tune - the careening samples of dialogue and electronic coruscations - and impart pop sensibilities and melody within the ambient noise. to say this had even the scantest ripple or effect on anyone when it was released in 1973 would be an act of divine revisionism, as only something like 100 copies of this were privately pressed. quitting his job and recording an album of what is often called aural collage proved to be an impecunious decision, as he ended up bankrupting himself, falling to penury, eventually waddling back to a normal job. he left this as his living testament, and luckily he has been afforded the opportunity to record another dreamies album recently, entitled "program 12." i've yet to hear it and am somewhat reticent, especially given the immensity of my love for this album. as far as "lost" albums go, this is exceeded by nothing and no one - remaining one of my absolute favorite curiosities and listening experiences, and i can only marvel at the ambition it displays. please, please - if you enjoy this record, please purchase it from holt's website. the cover alone is worth the 10 dollars, and this man deserves any penny you can spare for putting something so hypnotic into this sad, grey world.
download dreamies' "program 10 & 11"
http://www.mediafire.com/?oyyrm1nw2rk
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