***Dutch singer GW Sok is best known for his 30 year career fronting post-punk legends The Ex, as well as extensive solo and collaborative work in theatre, music, and spoken word since leaving that group in 2008. Dream Skills is the alias of electronic musician Donald Grant McLean, a UK native living in Queens, NY who has recorded and performed as a member of NYC post-industrial unit Final Boss, the international, experimental OMA collective, and English noise rock ensemble Action Beat. Over the course of ten tracks, recorded in varied environs around the world, the duo traverse an austere but evocative electronic landscape, where carefully chosen words and a uniquely deliberate delivery guide the way. Sok's singular presence, honed over many decades of cutting through dins in various forms, steadies the turbulent course. Dream Skills' rhythmic, pulsating foundation defies the DIY, punk origins of its creator, filling the speakers with lush arrangements not typically found in the restrictive realm of modular synthesis. "As We Speak" boldly marries new operating procedures and instrumentation with time-tested creative approaches, resulting in an album of adventurous exercises in language and composition. A studied, confident warmth challenging a cold, uncertain future.
LP $23.75
08/02/2024