Name: Dreams Are Not Enough
Brand: Telefon Tel Aviv

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

GI343cd

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Colour

Colour details

Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

Format Music US

Limited edition

Release date

2019-09-27

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier US

Secre­tly

Tax rate US

Sales:8.875

UPC / Barcode

804297834337

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Total Cap

1 / CD / Extended format: No / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

Artist

Telefon Tel Aviv

Genre US

Electronic

Label US

Ghostly International

Formed in 1999 in New Orleans, <en>Telefon Tel Aviv</en> quickly gained recognition for their unique blend of electronic music. Signed to Chicago's Hefty Records, they released their acclaimed debut album in the fall of 2001. Their sound is characterized by intricate melodies and atmospheric textures, creating a captivating listening experience.

In addition to their main project, <en>Telefon Tel Aviv</en> has also worked on various side projects, including composing the score for the 2001 film "New Port South". Their second album, "Map Of What Is Effortless", was released in January 2004 and further solidified their reputation as innovative musicians.

The passing of member Charlie Cooper on January 22nd, 2009 was a tragic loss for the music community. Despite this heartbreaking event, <en>Telefon Tel Aviv</en>'s legacy continues to inspire and influence other artists in the electronic music scene.

The return of storied Southern Gothic electronic entity Telefon Tel Aviv is as unexpected as it is impressive. Their three influential albums of the 2000’s - Farenheit Fair Enough, Map Of What Is Effortless, and Immolate Yourself - charted an increasingly turbulent and textured vision of post-IDM synthetic songcraft, until the sudden passing of founding member Charlie Cooper in 2009 ceased the project, presumably forever. During the decade since, co-founder Josh Eustis has performed with, produced, mixed, and mastered countless artists, from high-profile institutions (Nine Inch Nails, Puscifer, Apparat) to underground fixtures (Belong, Vatican Shadow, Drab Majesty, Tropic Of Cancer), in addition to his own solo and collaborative work in Sons Of Magdalene and Second Woman. But years of reflection and processing gradually seeded in him a desire to revive TTA and venture a fourth full-length, in the spirit of what they started: Dreams Are Not Enough. From the shuddering software oscillations of the opening piece, "I dream of it often," the classic Telefon palette of hyper-modern sound design and smoky nocturnal emotion feels vividly revitalized. The songs stand apart but belong together, threading a veiled narrative of loss, anger, and age - the crumbling of constancies, shifting sands slipping through the hourglass. The album’s fragmented track titles relate a recurring dream that’s haunted Eustis since childhood, based on a murky incident during a family vacation to a remote Alabama coastline when he was eight. In the dream he swims alone through the waves past the sandbar to where the ocean shelf abruptly drops away into a gradient of infinite darkness; awed, he peers into the depths and sees himself down at the bottom, mouth open and eyes blank, floating motionless like a corpse. An undercurrent of eerie melancholy flows through the album, manifested in shivering widescreen meditations, depressive twilit modern pop, and devotional industrial abstractions. Melodies emerge and evaporate; rhythms lock in step then fracture and fade; centers cannot hold. "A younger version of myself" deftly encapsulates the unique poignancy and shadowplay of this TTA iteration, shuffling on a hypnotic rhythm with the swing of backwards looping tape as Eustis croons a lost, liminal lament about waiting in line and the passing of time. "Standing at the bottom of the ocean" sinks even more minimal, subliminal electricity crossfading into skeletal soul built from ghostly bass, smeared chords, and naked voice, before ebbing away in a cyber-screwed downtempo outro. Eustis speaks of wanting Dreams Are Not Enough to evoke a sense of emptiness, of cutting unnecessary elements from each mix, to convey this as a solitary work - framing an absence. A document as much of what’s not there as what remains.

Dreams Are Not Enough

Music US