Dadamah
This Is Not A Dream

Perhaps good old Brian Eno was right when he said that "only two thousand people bought the first Velvet Underground album but all of them ended up founding a band." One of these people is undoubtedly the New Zealander Roy Montgomery, one of the most innovative and brilliant contemporary rock musicians, who in 1992 launched the Dadamah project, a collective that produced only one album, yet it was one of the most important of the past decade. That album is precisely "This Is Not A Dream," a surprising, phenomenal record, capable of captivating indelibly on the first listen, where the influence of the Velvet Underground is unmistakably felt.

The opening of "Limbo Swing" already presents, in summary, what are the pillars of the album: namely a dilated, extended, liquid sound of psychedelic origin, that slowly and slyly demands our attention with a majestic manner. The singer's voice follows the melody step by step: first it is subdued, then it becomes progressively more neurotic, anxious, frantic, almost simulating an epileptic attack. A turn of keyboards at the end has the effect of creating a vortex in which all the sound seems to get lost. The neurosis, a fundamental component of the "angry young" of the new wave, is another cornerstone of the work, and it dominates in the subsequent "Papa Doc", where the opening riff impressively resembles that of the reed-like "I'm Waiting For The Man". The raga that characterizes the track has a dirty, brutal sound in the best Velvet tradition, while the singing is spectral, gloomy, cavernous, and occasionally blends with the spasmodic wails in the background reminiscent of Nico.

The atmospheres are often dreamlike (despite the title saying "this is not a dream") and the bass's pace becomes obsessive on more than one occasion. "Too Hot To Dry" is a long, indeed very long, litany; the effect of further length is created by the tired, lazy, and repetitive guitar, supported by the emptied singing. "Brian's Children" is another great demonstration by our artists, with those screams in the chorus and that bass suddenly emerging. However, where Dadamah reaches the peak is "High Tension House", with its dark and almost gothic atmospheres, featuring an irresistible bass line, and the usual cavernous and prophetic voice, elements that also reappear in the other masterpiece of the work, "High Time", where one listens with surprise to the Suicide-like pulsations in the background.

Other "gems" recommend the purchase of this wonderful album, the electronic distortions of "Nicotine", where the singing makes its way, the "On The Road" atmosphere and the disorienting effects in the background accompanied by spatial cacophonies of "Radio Brain", the whispers and continuous, circular lines drawn by the bass of "Replicant Emotions".
All this to say that the only album by Dadamah is a record to devour and consume on the player’s plate. It's really worth it.