Tag: Kestrels

Review: Kestrels – Dream or Don’t Dream

The first thing you notice about Kestrels‘ new album, Dream or Don’t Dream, is the wall of guitar that smacks you in the face and then the soft vocals of guitarist / singer Chad Peck. It’s a powerful one-two combination, but in reverse – like a boxer whacking you with the cross and then fading out with the jab.

This is apparent in the opening track, “Vanishing Point,” which flows back and forth between roars and whispers. The equally heavy “Grey and Blue” includes some frantic drumming from Michael Catano and a guitar solo by none other than J. Mascis (who, of course, shreds it).

“I wanna be where you are. Could I find you there?” Peck asks on “It’s a Secret” – a rocking song about unrequited love that wouldn’t be out of place on a Matthew Sweet album. “Don’t Dream” crashes like surf waves and then bursts back into heavy guitar chords that remind me of Hum tracks. “A Way Out” has some of Catano’s snappiest drumming and I love how it’s on equal footing with Peck’s impressive guitar work throughout the track.

The raw fuzz of “Everything Is New” mimics the energy Peck probably felt while constructing the album after his original backing band split up in 2016. “Dalloway” has a cool, deep bass groove throughout it that mixes well with straight-up shoegaze guitars. “Keep it close from the start. Watch it all come apart,” Peck sings on “Keep It Close” – a song about how fast things can dissolve, and how to recover from such a thing. “Feels Like the End” has some neat chops from Catano that zig and zag around Peck’s shredding. “Lost in the thought again, feeling like it’s all going to end,” Peck sings on the closing track, “Say Less.” It builds to a crescendo and then pulls the rug out from under you to drop you into a psychedelic rabbit hole that leads to another tunnel of fuzzy distortion that takes you to Peck’s biggest and best solo on the record. It’s a hell of an ending.

Dream or Don’t Dream is a nice bit of shoegaze and dream pop that gets in your head with solid grooves and blistering guitar solos.

Keep your mind open.

[I dream of you subscribing.]

[Thanks to Conor at Hive Mind PR.]

Kestrels’ new single “Grey and Blue” features J. Mascis and a wall of shoegaze sound.

Photo courtesy of Hive Mind PR.

On Dream or Don’t Dream, Halifax’s Kestrels live out a guitar freak’s wildest fantasies. The supercharged shoegaze rockers’ fourth full-length album features spellbinding mixing from John Agnello(Sonic Youth, Alvvays, Kurt Vile, Cyndi Lauper) and mastering engineer Greg Calbi (David Bowie, Lou Reed, Television, Blondie). Together, they constructed a towering devotional to tone with blazing riffs, powerhouse drums, and swooning hooks emerging from an enveloping haze.

WATCH: Kestrels’ “Grey and Blue” feat. Dinosaur Jr.’s J Mascis video on YouTube

The first single, “Grey and Blue” is a fuzzy, reverb drenched power-pop track featuring soaring solos from Dinosaur Jr‘s J Mascis. Guitarist and vocalist Chad Peck explained, “”Grey and Blue” is a song about being carefully and uncharacteristically optimistic and vulnerable. This song came at the end of a really rough period in my life and it captures the nervous excitement of that time. My thinking tends to get narrow and shallow during bad periods, and when I feel things start to change it’s almost overwhelming; I’m not sure if I should trust it, but I have to push forward anyway. It’s a good feeling when you meet someone who makes you feel like your eyes can open a little wider and makes the echos skip through your brain.”

Dream Or Don’t Dream was largely written on the sofa of Ash‘s Tim Wheeler, but Wheeler is not the only guitar aficionado that Peck has in his contact list. “J Mascis plays two solos on this song. It’s still weird to say that out loud,” Peck explains. “We opened for Dinosaur Jr at this wild secret show in Amherst, MA. I met Luisa, J’s wife, and his longtime engineer Justin Pizzoferrato there. Luisa invited us over to their place and J gave us a tour of his studio and just kept handing me different guitars to try out (“This was what I used when I recorded “Out There”…). It was surreal. When we were tracking this song, Justin mentioned that it would be a good song for J to play on and he set it up for me. Thanks Justin! Thanks J! He did 7 takes and they are all incredible. Maybe I’ll release the other 6 takes someday.”

Dream Or Don’t Dream is out on July 10th on Darla Records. It is available for pre-order here.

Keep your mind open.

[I dream of you subscribing.]

[Thanks to Hive Mind PR.]