Wildest Dreams

One listen through the self-titled album by Wildest Dreams and its hard to believe a few things; first, that this is a release from 2014 and not 1974, second, that this is primarily the work of a man best known for bringing disco and house to the UK. But it remains true that Harvey Bassett, a man known for six-hour marathon sets that bounce genres with little regard to preconceived notions, has now broached the world of rock and (reportedly) with a crack set of session musicians and vets, crafted an homage to L.A.'s past transgressions and excesses. That's the story, though it seems likely that most of the instrumentation is his own and the band just a figment. For the most part Bassett's genre hopping slows here, but still shows a bit of its collar, as the album is rooted largely in grit strewn 70's rock and drizzly 'Riders on the Storm' workouts, but the occasional bounce of disco, and the ozone fried whiff of acid jazz can't help but creep in at the edges. Which is to say that Harvey recontextualizes the crate digging notions of flipping through past influences rather than just re-hashing 70's catalog heavies, and to a large extent he pulls it off well. The album works as kind of smudged painting of 70's heroes and for those of you looking to the re-released column here, this will come as welcome addition alongside those values reissues.

Listen:


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