The Dawn Band- The Agents of Sentimentality (Elektrohasch CD148)

The Dawn band is a new project with Daniel the drummer from Hainloose and Martin Treppesch. They call it Indie psychedelic rock, which was not a good start for me. I don’t want any Indie shit in my psychedelic rock! But it is my job to review it and give it a chance. The CD contains 10 tracks in 42 minutes. The opening track starts slow and pretty colour haze inspired and then the more melodic riffing kicks in and the song gets less interesting. The singer has this really nice brit pop whispery vocal style that I am not at all fond of at all. This track slows and they try to be psychedelic and then they come back to the main laid back part. City Lights is a more uptempo track and the backing vocal is really annoying and makes it too happy pop music. The next section of the song is pretty cool with a power riff and a more intense vocal and then they come back to the main riff. There are very few guitar solos on this CD. A powerful song and the longest on the CD. Lost soul at the Nightclub is pretty far out after the last song. It is a very repetitive vocal track that slowly builds up and they psych out a bit with a cool heavy section but sadly it goes back to the repetitive theme and it did not evolve more. Surfing the Big Wave is another long track, 8 mins that starts very slowly and then the bass and drums kick in as they hit the fast paced melodic groove. The end mid part gets pretty funky with the wah guitar kicking in and then they go into a short strange section before they kick back into the uptempo happy melodic guitar section. I am not so fond of some of the sections of this last 3mins but still a great track. Boat across the Ocean is a 4 min acoustic track and with a very melodic theme and then this dual female vocal comes in that is pretty cool and then back into the acoustic theme again. The vocal parts are really cool and mainly sung by this woman. The next track is another double layered instrumental acoustic number. Kussnacht continues with another track that starts with acoustic guitar and the whispery vocal again. This one picks up the pace, sounds like Cheap Trick actually.. but gets intense. Amours Ark starts with a bass line and low laid back whispered vocal as the guitars start coming in and increasing the complexity of the songs. I am not really into the singing on this one and it is very in your face in the mix. They break out of this into the heaviest thing on the record and cool riff and guitar. Still very melodic but a good build up and track. Wow.. hell of a track except the rap sample at the end. A very melodic track takes off next and is a bit spacey and then builds up and really reminds me of Motorpsycho. The closing track features a really cool organ that is mixed loud and is pretty psyched out and the band is playing some heavy stuff in the background and the singer really screams and sings in a very powerful way. Wow. This song has a very intense ending of a damn cool record, despite my reservations to start. The band is clearly Colour Haze, Motorpsycho and Queens of the Stone. This is another strange band choice for Elektrohasch but there is a lot of really cool music on this album and some stuff I am not so keen on. The release before was German punk rock band. 

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