2005 Interscope Records

3 out of 5

Before I begin let me offer the disclaimer that this review will incredibly biased.  I have been borderline obsessed with this band since 2002 when I saw them live immediately prior to the release of their previous album, El Cielo.  That record’s mix of spacious, engrossing atmosphere, diverse and eclectic instrumentation and flawless production made it one of my favorite pieces of music ever assembled (I count the entire record as a single piece of music because of the dreamlike quality which binds the songs into one moody, concise work).  It was, for my all intents and purposes, nearly perfect.  So now, they have a new record.  And with it, massive expectations to meet.

As countless reviewers have pointed out since this new album found its way to fans’ ears through the internet last month, Catch Without Arms is very different from what came before.  Gone are the instrumental segues between tracks, which made El Cielo and its predecessor, Leitmotif form aural journeys before mere collections of songs. The Eastern and Latin influences strewn across the previous two records are all but gone, and Terry Date's production comes off as much simpler and more straightforward.

So now that I’ve gone to great lengths to describe what Catch Without Arms doesn’t sound like, you may ask what’s left. Still present is guitarist Mark Engles’ trademark ethereal, delay-washed guitar noise, singer Gavin Hayes wide-open baritone vocals (though noticeably less operatic-sounding this time around), bassist Drew Roulette’s pseudo-funk basslines, and drummer Dino Campanella’s loose-but-aggressive rhythms.  The real difference here is in the arrangements.  Where a song from El Cielo would build up to a roaring climax only to drop into an unexpected gentle acoustic guitar jam with a slide guitar lead, most of the material on Catch Without Arms follows a decidedly simpler intro-verse-chorus-verse-bridge format.  Fans of the band’s more avant garde side will undoubtedly feel some disappointment due to the relative conventionality of these new tunes (as I did upon the first few spins), but with a few more listens these songs really start to sink in and feel at one with the rest of the dredg catalogue.  This album should be taken into context as a work by a band that since the beginning has never stayed in one place musically.  Each album they have recorded has been a radical departure from the last and this is no exception.

The overt poppiness of some songs like “Matroshka” and the title track is a very stark contrast to the epic musical scope and permanent subtle darkness and eerieness of the past, but I don’t fear it will be their final direction as a band.  They have already proven their credibility and their ability to create  unique music, so I can not blame them for wanting to try something more conventional, trying their collective hand at writing more-marketable songs.  And for the most part they succeed.

This is also a very diverse record within its own context, perhaps even moreso than the last two.  The explosive energy of songs like “Ode to the Sun” and “The Tanbark is Hot Lava” contrasts nicely with the melancholy slide guitar and electronic drums of “Sang Real” and the haunting “Jamais Vu.”  “Zebraskin” is an impressive showcase of the band’s R&B/trip-hop influence and is probably the single biggest departure from their previous work to date.

If there is a problem with this album it will probably be for the fans that have been with them for the last two.  Catch Without Arms stands on its own as a very good and very solid record and will hopefully break the band through to a wider audience, but as a followup to El Cielo, it comes across as dredg playing it safer, and at times, dare I say, boring.  I liken it to if Radiohead had released OK Computer before The Bends.  One was a masterful combination of amazing songs and brave experimentation, the other a well-written but ultimately conventional pop record. In that case though, they were released in an order where one blew the other away; dredg has done this backwards.  Should this analogy prove accurate, I can't help but wonder what their Kid A will sound like.  Keeping my fingers crossed.