A Shoreline Dream - Dreaming Diary: a shoreline dream

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

a shoreline dream

Ryan:
So what is "a shoreline dream"? Where does that name come from? We're asked this question quite often and the only true explanation would be the irony of the phrase. The dream = a glorious life by the beach. The reality = a future wasteland and a horrible place to build a home, building, or city. Humans have accelerated their way of life in search of the future, totally unaware of the consequences of their actions. Doing something before fully thinking it through. Fighting, working and striving for that perfect life. Well, as time advances we have learned something we should have known a long time back. The world changes... all the time. We were clueless in our decision making process and we'll unfortunately pay the price for thinking for some reason that stability of climate, environment and life could even remotely be possible. We built entire empires in some of the most dangerous places on earth. What happens when these places become an environmental war zone? I for one don't think it will be very far off in the future as I believe it's already started. We were just too greedy as a race of people to ever understand. The water has boiled over and we never saw it coming.

Parallels can be drawn to this "shoreline dream" as well. It's not just on the shores, and it's not just an environmental issue. These bad decisions happen every day in many different ways. In relationships, in community, in religious views, and on and on it goes. People forget to think of the consequences of their actions, and we all do it. It's an imperfect world, but one not to take for granted. We always forget that we really have no time at all to appreciate everything around us. We tend to always focus everything into the "dream" of what we want to happen, and not the true "luck" that we're even alive to focus on it.

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FILTER MAGAZINE - review

album: "avoiding the consequences"
release: 9/19/07
label: latenight weeknight records

"85% - A Shoreline Dream might be one of the most aptly named bands to emerge from the musical seascape this year. Their debut LP, reminiscent of Sigur Rós meets Placebo, sweeps high and low with the lunar guidance of a tidal somnambulant. As with the changing levels of the ocean, a potential to be drowned lurks behind every moment of tepid wading. But as with individual waves, the particulars of each track are overrun by the vastness of the sea itself."

WESTWORD "BEST OF DENVER"

Best Neo-Shoegaze Album (2007) Avoiding the Consequences

The artistic ambition behind Drop the Fear, Ryan Policky and Gabriel Ratliff's previous band, was undeniable, but the act's music felt unfinished. When Avoiding the Consequences swept into stores last fall, all of the hyperbolic critical accolades seemed a bit premature. However, the dreamy, moody atmosphere of this album firmly establishes the band as heirs apparent of acts Sigur Rós, Slowdive and M83. Songs like "Love Is a Ghost in America," which recalls Kevin Shields's sleepy yet gently moving work for Lost in Translation, drift in like warm, spectral winds in places untainted by recent human presence. Elsewhere, "Zoning" whispers softly before hypnotically soaring into the neglected regions of the imagination. Throughout the album, inspiring vistas of melody and electronically generated sound are flawlessly melded with expertly nuanced rhythms. Easily on the same level of musical sophistication as their influences, the members of A Shoreline Dream prove that their vision is one worth sharing.

SXSW & NX35 - March 2010

neverChanger tour 2008

WESTWORD - REVIEW

album: "neverChanger - EP"
release: 6/10/08
label: latenight weeknight records

By Tom Murphy
Published on July 10, 2008

The latest release from A Shoreline Dream is an exploration of broader sonic vistas than those of the dream-pop wunderkinds' three excellent previous efforts. Essentially a single with two remixes, Neverchanger is a collaboration with noted German composer Ulrich Schnauss. The original track is a work of breathtaking depth that stirs the imagination and carries the listener into the outer reaches of inner space. Layers of electronic and conventional instrumentation are seamlessly bound together to produce textures both soothing and electrifying. The Cacheflowe remix is dub-like in its emphasis on percussion, while Jap Jap's remix is delicately hypnotic, ensuring a revelatory, rather than repetitive, listen. Until Shoreline's next full-length album is released, this is a rich taste of what's to come.

FENSEPOST.COM - review

album: "COASTAL - EP"
release: 7/31/07
label: latenight weeknight records

"2007 appears to be the year of the atmospheric group. I’ve come across several, specifically over the past few months, including Terrene, Tramplini, and several others that escape my mind at this precise time. A Shoreline Dream also fits the mold. However, where Tramplini and Terrene find themselves undeniably in the pop category, the music of A Shoreline Dream is much darker. The drums are quite prominent, purposefully, and the guitar epic and stormy. The vocals on the other hand are mixed lower, adding mystery to the sound and forcing the listener to focus on other elements within the music. It’s as if the band wants you to focus more on the guitars—and it’s an effective tool throughout the EP."

SENTIMENTALIST - review

album: "COASTAL - EP"
release: 7/31/07
label: latenight weeknight records

"This Denver shoegazer act is back with an EP that expands on their shimmering wall of sound, opening with the all-encompasing “Ukraine”. The coastal theme comes across on all four songs, with guitars as the strong current, swirling through all the drawn-out melodies, and odd metal sounds in “The Barrier” crashing as the waves. The overall trance-like Spiritualized state is cut short too soon, with the disc clocking in at just twenty minutes. It’s almost startling once the songs are over to be once again faced with silence rather than dark dreams."

XLR8R MAGAZINE - review

album: "avoiding the consequences"
release: 9/19/07
label: latenight weeknight records

"When Avoiding the Consequences' hour-long stare finally breaks, there's sea foam at your feet, sleep in your eyes, and it's clear why Ryan Policky and his Colorado-based four-piece call themselves A Shoreline Dream. But while the distant melodies, the swirling, treated guitars, the understated drumming, and the muffled sonics are on a perpetual slow dive toward shoegaze, Policky and Company's ride offers up a different kind of atmosphere. It‘s a complicated brand of sorcery that spooks and rattles as songs smear themselves all over the record in an experience that never truly ends, even after album-closer "The End" promises you it has."