Dreamboogie - Wearin' It Out (2016)

Tracklist

01. Ridin' with My Baby
02. Black Mountain
03. The Twist (Modern)
04. Don't You Feel My Leg
05. Now the Kings Have Gone
06. Crossroads
07. Lonely Woman (On the Loose)
08. Skillet Blues
09. See See Rider
10. Steppin' Out

This little band from Melbourne, Australia executes a unique take on the blues utilizing sampled blues music loops as backing for their every track. Sounds strange, but it fills out the sound of vocal, guitar, bass and drums to create a pleasing texture. Everything was recorded totally live in the studio against the backdrop of pre-recorded tape loops. To top it off there are the extraordinary vocals of Rebecca Davey. Let me see how to describe her voice and delivery. Think of the grittiest, toughest and most yearning female singer you can think of-add a touch of Bjork and some mumbled, incoherent and coherent lyrics and a chit load of “Baaabees” (babies). That’s as close as I can come to describing this powerhouse from “down under”. Just so there is no misunderstanding, I mean all this as a true compliment. The three piece band backing her are no sloughs either. They all somehow add music that perfectly compliments the sampled loops. You just have to hear this wonderfulness with your own ears to get it. Fired-up guitar, thumping bass and crashing drums pulsing together on six band originals and four creative cover songs.

With the first few moments of “Ridin’ With My Baby”, I’m like…what the what? I honestly thought Rebecca was singing in a foreign language. Once the initial shock calmed down I came to the realization that here was a an unbridled force of nature. Her unhesitating delivery just grabs at your soul. “Choo choo cha boogie” in deed. Samuel Buckley’s biting guitar over the acoustic loop on “Black Mountain Blues” just about makes my day. Now Rebecca wants to do “The Twist” and with that attitude in her voice I’m not about to stop her. They do a rearranged version of Danny Barker’s “Don’t You Feel My Leg”, but they take full writer credit. Strange.

A throbbing bass line along with a hypnotic guitar riff drive the celebration of the late Kings-B.B., Albert and Freddie as Rebecca rants like a soulful hellhound. Their treatment of Robert Johnson’s “Crossroads” at just under eight minutes clocks in as the longest track here. The juxtaposition of guitar and the free form singing and ranting of our heroine against the loop is almost too much to take it leaves you feeling beautifully emotionally spent at song’s conclusion.

“See See Rider” is taken as a slow funeral dirge. The Denise LaSalle via Buddy Guy backdoor saga “Steppin’ In” gets funkified and deconstructed into something wholly new save for the lyrics, after all it’s what Dreamboogie does.

The band derives their name from jazz-blues writer Langston Hughes’ poem of the same name. Rebecca Davey on vocals, Samuel Buckley on guitar, Connor O’Neill on bass and Robert B. Dillion on drums have turned the blues upside down and inside out to create a mind blowing and yeah I’m gonna say it…loopy experience…pun intended. The lady’s mesmerizing vocal attack along with the precise instrumentation are something to behold. You’ve just crossed over into The Dreamboogie Zone…

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