Review: bright, little stars - Haunting my Dreams
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| Label: DIY |
The concept of "scenes" in HC/Punk has massively changed over the last two decades. No matter how you put it, local scenes are not as important anymore. Back then, they definitely were a huge thing. Be it the Orange County-scene of Melodic Punk-bands, the still legendary NYHC-scene (this term will probably never die), the Florida Metalcore-scene in the 90s/early 2000s or D.C. in the 80s. Let's not forget about San Diego/California in the early 90s, where Screamo was invented by the bands surrounding Gravity and Ebullition Records.
Today these local scenes might still exist up to a certain extent, but the internet and the whole digitization changed everything. Nowaydays you don't need those scenes or even gigs to give you a platform. Recently a lot of venues and promoters struggled to set up their gigs due to high costs and/or bad selling tickets. The pandemic changed a lot and people might not be hyped enough to experience their favourite bands on stage. On top of that, life isn't getting cheaper. As I said before, the pandemic was a massive driver of these recent developements. More than ever, the internet is the number one platform for any band. And people got used to that whole "social distancing"-thing. Big bands sell livestreams of their concerts or even show them in cinemas. While the digitization has a lot of downsites to it, it also gives new opportunities. Like-minded people/musicians come together to share their interests. People who would've never get into any conversation if it wasn't for the internet. People like the ones from the "Bedroom Skramz/DIY Jamz"-community.
They have their own "local" scene. Their country is the internet, and their state is a Discord-server. Most of these people are solo-musicians who create and record music in their... yeah exactly, in their bedroom. They hide behind aliasses and don't show their face, or at least they don't act like celebrities and let rather speak the art for themselves. Musically they share a love for Screamo and (Midwest-)Emo, but most of them write their music on the computer, or use synthesizers or drum computers. It's pretty Electro-/Synth-based and on top of that pretty experimental or even "avantgarde". They hail from all over the world, and that is one cool thing about it. The other cool thing is something they have in common with the "traditional" scenes from the 80s or 90s: They have a mix of more seasoned guys and a lot of very young musicians. And what they do is pretty impressive, for guys in their teens...
Before this already longest review intro ever gets tooootally out of hand, let's take this bridge: One of the young guns of the Bedroom Skramz-community is BRIGHT, LITTLE STARS from Texas. He started out in the beginning of 2022 and released a demo and an EP in spring. Now here is his debut album "Haunting my Dreams", with 12 tracks of Bedroom Skramz-epicness. Before I get to the record itself, I gotta ramble about this shaky term. Or let's just say, the term "Skramz" was always kinda shaky. It became popular when THE USED, SILVERSTEIN and the evil that was Victory Records stole the "Screamo"-term and sold it to the masses. Somehow I always thought of "Skramz" being another term for "Screamo", but maybe that's just me. I'm getting off-road once again! BRIGHT, LITTLE STARS may use some screams but in the best Bedroom-style the shouts are distorted and often low in the mix. This is no ORCHID- or SHIKARI-style screamo. The screams aren't the focus of this project. Expecting something a bit heavier, I'm actually surprised about the touching sensitivity of "Haunting my Dreams". Listen to cuts like "Picture of you" or "Do you feel the same?", to get a glimpse of what I'm talking about. The synths are melancholic or even forgiving most of the time, and the noodling (via guitar or synthesizer), in the tradition of Midwest-Emo, is beautifully done. The screams rather act like a counterpart to the melodic sound image of the album and it works pretty good in my perception. And while BRIGHT, LITTLE STARS may not be the best singer technically, he wrote some touching vocal harmonies. I love that.
As "Haunting my Dreams" progresses, it generates a natural flow. The parts connect to each other, the sad but at the same time very warm and sincere mood of the record unfolds to its fullest. Yet, it's not like BRIGHT, LITTLE STARS falls into some kind of pattern. Here and there he throws in some surprises. Best to mention "Freeze!" now. I also gotta highlight the cool samples who fit in smoothly!
Bringing it to the core, "Haunting my Dreams" is an extremely well put together record that blends touchy melodies, synths, guitars, distortion, samples, screams, singing, desperation, melancholy, hope, catchiness, weirdness, and experimentation in a meaningful, absorbing and well-balanced way. You can feel the heart and the effort this young talent put into the creation of this album...
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