The only way I have found to conceptualize Tempesst’s newest album, It Must Be A Dream that drops today is by comparing it to a casserole, so bear with me…
Unlike many amateur culinary disasters that follow the idea of combining all things that taste good into one thing, It Must Be A Dream actually comes together in a coherent, cohesive, and incredibly palatable dish.
In the base layer of the entire project, there is a synthy, psychedelic soundscape on top of which the many layers and flavors are built. The core instrumentation of the band, say the potatoes and cheese, is pulled from The Beatles recording era, think Sgt. Peppers and beyond, with some modernizing, artificial twists.
The melodies follow the recipe of the Fleet Foxes while bringing in unexpected time switches and melodic jumps that give it a taste of Tame Impala’s Currents. This is particularly noticeable in tracks like “High on My Own” and the title track, “Must Be A Dream.” Yet somehow, the vocals of Toma Banjanin have the same range as potatoes. Where you can adapt potatoes to any meal, any time of day, Toma can do the same with his voice. He can subdue it into a deep baritone a la Nick Cave or Matt Berninger of The National, then ascend it straight up into a gorgeous falsetto of BØRNS.
Despite the cooking faux pas of mixing acidic and basic elements (like milk and orange juice-- gross), Tempesst successfully combines lyrical elements of refined English literature and blunt, brutish, basic modern colloquialisms. For instance, Banjanin follows “the winter of our discontent”-- a line Shakespeare’s from Richard III-- in “On The Run,” with lyrics about social media scrolling and the burned out attention span of Gen Z in “Age of the Bored.”
The backing vocal harmonies have the precision of the Beach Boys, and the aesthetic of The Beatles in their prime. Mixed in with such mastery of production, they almost sound like instruments in and of themselves. The production of the album was crafted by long-time friend and producer, Elliot Heinrich, completely in the band’s own warehouse-converted-to-a-studio known as “Pony Recordings.” Heinrich’s mastery brings out every subtle taste mixed into the casserole, giving it its own space to be enjoyed.
Photo Credit: Gyorgy Laszlo
As a whole, the album plays through like a Pink Floyd album, running into itself track after track much like Dark Side of the Moon. While the primary flavor--the salt and pepper--is definitely psychedelic rock, Tempesst sprinkles in spices from other genres throughout. There is a pinch of 80’s disco in the driving drum track, a touch of modern EDM in the production, and a kick of classic rock like cayenne pepper that sometimes hits out of nowhere with a heavy guitar riff. Hell, there's even a country aftertaste in the lead line of the final song, “Voices in my Head.”
All in all, listening through Tempesst’s Must Be A Dream is like taking a bite of a masterfully spiced, perfectly cooked casserole, made with only the highest quality ingredients--one of which is LSD. It is a psychedelic experience through and through, equipped with every aspect of an acid trip: the ups, the downs, the terrifying moments, the moments of pure beauty, the moments of “what the f*** is going on,” and the moments of the blissful, total understanding of the universe. All you can do is lock yourself in a room, put Alice in Wonderland muted on the TV, and let the record spin.