Most music that acquires tags like “dream pop,” “ambient,” or “cinematic” is more than often minimalistic, understated, drifting, and transient. And while the music found on Spiritus certainly passes through all of those territories from time to time, it also has one thing that is usually missing from such soundscapes. Beat. And groove. Two things, then. Beat and groove…and a driving energy. Okay, there are many musical elements that set it apart from its musical peers.
And it is this deft walk between the structured and the formless, between the solid and the serene, between forward thinking and neo-classical tradition, between the avant-garde and the familiar, that forms and informs the nature of the music that Mary Knoblock makes here.
Take “Hazy Days” and its liquid and lysergic vocals that float above a complex, almost industrial soundscape, but one that sits far enough back in the mix to not dominate the proceedings. Similarly, for all “Crossed Our Hearts” future-dance riffs and beats, the lyrics and their ability to dance delicately over such a coiled and groovesome sound make these juxtapositions work so well.
But then there are songs that do play more into such dreamscape expectations, such as “Amnesiac,” which perfectly captures via its seductive sonics, the idea of forgetfulness, disembodiment, and wandering those liminal spaces between reality and fantasy, reason, and dream.
Spiritus is a strange album, and I mean that in the best sense of the word. Strange is beguiling; it is untethered in expectation and conformity; it is creative and brave; it is adventurous and experimental. The fourteen tracks here are indeed all of that…and more. Much more.
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