In the interest of self-disclosure, I preface this by saying that instrumental/post-rock is my genre of choice, and I welcome a good, meaty listen. As such, I was excited by the opportunity to review the latest effort, Ohm, by Milwaukee’s This Specific Dream. But what started out as excitement and intrigue didn’t quite make it through the roughly fifty-four minutes of music crammed into the disc’s four tracks.
Talent and confidence certainly aren’t in short supply when referring to This Specific Dream or Ohm. There are more than a few moments throughout the album that have a significant wow factor, with “Cicada” being the most heavily laden of the four tracks (and consequently the longest). And it definitely takes some minerals to bust off an album with an average track length of over thirteen minutes, which is territory even instrumental heavyweights Mogwai and Explosions In The Sky rarely wander into (the former’s My Father My King being the exception). My attention span seemed to be the only thing lacking, as I found myself reaching for the fast forward button on more than one occasion. “A Slight Intermission” was the only track I managed to listen to in its entirety more than once, which qualifies it as the album highlight in my opinion.
Each of the four songs on the album contain a core sound, like a cleaner, spacier, version of Pelican that I thoroughly enjoyed. It’s just that this delicious core was wrapped around too many minutes of unnecessary skin — like I had to work to get to the sweet, sweet innards. Maybe a good edit would have been in order to pare away some of the excess. Or maybe I’m an asshole for suggesting the artist change the art to appeal to my tastes. After all, nobody told Homer or Milton to shorten things up a bit.
As it stands, Ohm has served me as a great listen for those times when I’m not really listening, which is unfortunate given the caliber of material.
Genre: Instrumental/Post-rock/Metal
RIYL: Pelican, Isis, Red Sparowes
Label: Self-Released
