Garden of DreamsEverything Seraph
Oh, the Drama -- with a capital "D." A goth band that claims not to be goth. And anyone who knows goth knows that it is so dreadfully goth to claim Not to Be Goth. Despite a previous gothic endeavor called The Seraphim's Desire, Garden of Dreams is now channeling shoegazing British bands of the past. Or so it claims.
According to the band's official publicity information, this second album, Everything, returns the Chicagoan (not British) band to its "shoe-gazing, dream-pop past." Since the extremely limited cassette offering, 1994's Music Without Hands EP, is out of print, this claim can't be substantiated. There's nothing for the band actually to return to. However, an early version of the song "Winters Eternal Wish," from Everything, did appear on Bright Green Records' goth compilation, A Dream Within a Dream: music inspired by E.A. Poe. And, as expected, the song is positively dreary. Even so, some confused fans still hail Everything as the greatest event in British pop this decade. It's not. It's Goth -- with a capital "G."
By definition, a pop -- even dream pop -- song does not sound like a funeral dirge (i.e., like goth). So everything about Everything is incongruous. The vocals sound like pop vocals yearning to be goth, and the music sounds like goth wanting to be dream pop. That's likely because at least two of the band members, keyboardist Ruben Chew and bass player Michael Verzani, in GOD's third band lineup, have connections to other Chicago-area goth bands, whereas Gene Blalock, founder and vocalist, has remained GOD's sole constant. If anything, this record marks Blalock's return to shoegazing. Not GOD's.
Blalock's vocals, weak and limited in range, try to carry songs such as "Perfect Circle" into pop heaven but, combined with mournful music, often drag them down into monotonous meanderings. In fact, compared to the other guys in the band, Blalock is a wanna-be goth. Verzani, Chew, guitarist Scott Carpenter and drummer Graham Brisben got the goth thing down. Minor chords, which make for that sinister, oh-so-spooky effect, are littered throughout songs such as "When You Dream" and "Velvet Waves." As are strong keyboards and subdued guitar work. Which leads to another point: GOD couldn't be a traditional shoegazing band. It doesn't have the guitar chops.
Helium, a formidable dream-pop band, proves that goth and shoegazing can be successfully blended. If it's done well, genre-mixing can be innovative. If not, it's all muddle. Unfortunately, most of Everything falls into the latter category.
While GOD apes the droning sound and the "ahhh, ahhh" vocals of dream pop, the band seems to have forgotten what differentiates shoegazing from a repetitive answering-machine beep: grand chordal transformations. This is most apparent on "The Griffin," which is eight excruciating minutes of a single note played over and over. Tedious repetition does not a dream-pop song make.
Grand chordal transformations, the very things that drive shoegazers into delirious delight, involve subtle harmonic modulations, generally guitar-oriented, laced with feedback. Sometimes the chords come crashingly loud and are followed by soft lulls. Instead of chordal progressions, Garden of Dreams throws in superfluous synthesizer effects, such as creaks and gurgles. The screechy violin on "Glow" and "In the Shadows of a Ghost" isn't much help.
Minus the effects, "Glow" and "Bleeding Soul" are listenable. "Bleeding Soul" is a genuinely pop pop song. The vocals, hidden in the music, are soothing. It's the only song on Everything that comes near goth/ dream pop.
One wonders why Garden of Dreams even bothers to reinvent itself when it could be -- oh, horror of horrors -- just a goth band.
