Customer Reviews

Dichotomies & Dreamland

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Having seen most of the shoegazer bands back in the day, and still being a fan of that sound - Soundpool was a nice discovery in 2006. I disagree with the previous reviewers dismissive assessment that the last 14 minutes are a disappointment.

The last song (one of the strongest on D&D) "Butterflies" elevates from an ambient intro. joined by a house backbeat creating a layered groove paying off beautifully by the end. There greater sonic diversity than on their debut "On High", which show signs of growth beyond the shoegazer trappings. Blonde Redhead began as Sonic Youth Jr. and they have grown into their own sound, and Soundpool has the potential to do the same. Overall a standout record that wears there influences proudly on their sleeve with an eye towards carving their own niche for the future.

The first CD was great, an homage to all things shoegazer and dreampop. Yeah, it could have been recorded in 1990, but it was so solid as a set that it totally won me over. Now, I recognize that no band can be successful by simply repeating the same set over and over, particularly when the music was a direct copy of a dated style. You have to go somewhere, and in fact I'm looking for someone to push the shoe form to a different place - where I have no clue, but that's the genius element, creating new music.

So I can't fault this NYC boy-girl band for trying to stretch the genre, they should be encouraged. But there are problems, both in similarities to "On High" and changes. Let's start with the bass and drum track, which is a throwback technique, a repetitive pulsing drive which worked great on the last CD, but gets a little tired here, particularly on "Pleasure", which indeed sounds a lot like "Sons and Fascination" era Simple Minds, sans the Kerr quality vocals of course. In the other direction, the shrieking synths added to songs like "Dreamland" kind of hurt the ears, just tacking those on to a standard shoe mix is not the way to go. Finally, there's no reason to continue using short transition pieces, they just get messed up when ripped to MP3's, usually out of sequence. A pity, because the two "Dreamland" bits could have made one good song.

There is some really good stuff here. "Do What You Love" is a killer track, using all the best elements of this band, and a song where the synths really work. It does sound very Lush like (not a word Kim sings can be understood), and is not really a stretch from the last CD, but so what, crank it up and smile, great song. I really like the guitars, kind of half Emma Anderson and half Dandy Warhols. "Lush" works well, although I guess I was expecting something more like "Superblast" than "Etheriel", and "So Much" has a similar feel.

But overall there are long sequences that miss the mark, particularly the last 14 minutes of the CD, extensive passages which do not maintain the beat and go nowhere. I think maybe they were trying to fuse trip hop into the mix, which might work, but not here. A disappointment.