Disco Dreams - Cryptic [K]night

Independent producer Disco Dreams is just about to make his mark on the landscape with his debut single ‘Cryptic [K]night’, which is due to release on July 8th. Based in Northeast Ohio in the United States, he’s a genre-bender like many others fusing the likes of dreampop, synthwave, shoegaze, and other such sounds into an experimental blend. He describes his music as having a “psychedelic-dance vibe” and wants to remind everyone to live in the moment, carefree. It’s an honest task and one that spreads a good message. That being said, while ‘Cryptic [K]night’ is a good start to his career, there’s a bit of work that needs to be done before he reaches out too far. 

‘Cryptic [K]night’ has the hallmarks of shoegaze written all over it; that being that there’s a constant wall of some kind of sound throughout the song. However, instead of being within the realms of guitar walls, we’re getting synthesizer-based production. Because of that, a lot of the psychedelic effects presented within Disco Dreams’ mission statement are buried and otherwise garbled out in the mix. The percussion, especially the kick drum stand out and give the song rhythm and purpose, but other aspects of the song – such as the droning vocals Disco Dreams chose to use on the song – only serve to further obscure the mix rather than making it tight and clean. There’s a moment in the song that proves my point around the one-minute and forty-second mark. Rather than trying to stuff as much detail into the song as possible, Disco Dreams chills out and lets smaller, and lighter take the stage. That moment of pause was better than the majority of ‘Cryptic [K]night’. 

It's going to be interesting to see where Disco Dreams goes next. ‘Cryptic [K]night’ is a solid start, to say the very least, but he still has more work to do. Six out of ten.