There are many reasons to love what Steven Fleet does under the guise of Dream Bodies, not least, for those of us who have been around the sonic block a time or two, that it is a reminder of what a diverse and broad church the gothic and post-punk scene was back in the day. It would be easy for someone looking to revisit those sounds as a way of carrying them through into a bright (dark?) new future to rehash The Mission’s rock moves or The Sisters’ clinical cool, but that would be to miss the point.
The point is that those better-known names were just the tips of an enormous iceberg, and as Dream Bodies, Fleet is more interested in exploring what lies way below the waterline to both readdress the story and find sounds and styles more deserving of their day in the sun. (Contrary to popular belief, goths don’t burst into flames in direct sunlight. Well, not as often as you might expect.)
“Omens,” Dream Bodies’ eighth single of 2025, gathers around it a sort of Bauhausian gloom and spacious Stygian shade. And if there were ever a place where dub and darkwave rubbed shoulders, it is here, as booming basslines become the main sonic structure, with ticking beats and languid vocals, endless synth notes, and coiling guitar motifs all hooked into its resonant rumble as it snakes toward its final destination.
As it muses on the nature of lovers and whether they come into our lives pre-ordained or merely by chance, its sparse atmospherics and brooding baritone deliveries remind us that bands such as Joy Division were as much part of that broad movement as the more obvious names I dropped above.
What a great way to round off what has been a brilliant sonic year for Steven Fleet, and what an excellent last record for me to review as the last few hours of 2025 count down. Let’s do it all again next year, shall we?
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