Everything But The Everything - Dream

Everything But The Everything

Dream
self-released; 2019

​4.0 out of 5

By Matt Jensen

Everything But The Everything is a new project from a solo musician from San Francisco. He recently released a four-song EP entitled Dream. He played bass in a number of bands before starting this project. More often than not I found the music was led by the bass part.

He mentions, “The album is a rock n’ roll album that has a nostalgic feel to it.” That might be true but you can say that about almost any recent rock album so let’s get a little more specific. I was picking up a late ’70s and ’80s vibe from a lot of the songs. The long hall reverbs and some of the post-punk inspired qualities seem to reflect a number of bands from that period.

The first song is entitled “Chalk and Blood.” The rhythm section is held down with a steady beat and bass line. A reverb laced guitar glows in the background. The song drives. I wouldn’t say the vocals are buried in the mix but they are low and distorted which sound good for the aesthetics. As I mentioned the bass was a major factor and you can hear that on the chorus. At some points I was reminded of Primal Scream.

Up next is “This Cold Sea'' and this song out of all of them was perhaps the most ’80s influenced. It’s a blend between a number of bands like Echo & the Bunnymen and Duran Duran. You can include contemporaries LCD Systems in the mix that happened to be influenced by a lot of '80s music. I remember talking to James Murphy a couple years back and we were talking about the glory of an ’80s sounding kit and that seems to be the case here. There is more excitement to the kit in this case however. The vocals sound great on “This Cold Sea.” He is putting a lot of emotion in the words but not over doing it.

“Just” is another success and quite possibly the highlight. I was digging the more ethereal qualities to this song which include new age sounding piano and airy vocals. The distorted bass is a nice juxtaposition and I liked the experimentation and out of the box production. There is a different singer on this song unless there is some kind of effect on the vocals which is also possible.

Last up is “This Cage” and it felt like a closer from the slower BPM to the more ballad-like qualities. The song is more pensive and heartfelt but avoids being melodramatic. There are some inventive transitions that utilize dissonance. I loved it. The bass is subtle but again very integral to the sound. Eventually the song snaps into a Pink Floyd like guitar solo before the vocals become more the focal point.

​This is a great debut. It’s cohesive, accessible but also not predictable. On top of that the songs have enough deviation where I felt I was getting different flavors but not a different band. This is a promising start and I hope to hear a lot more. Recommended.

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