Never Again Will I Dream

Bleeding Like Mine, a Wisconsin-based group that's the brainchild of Curt Emmer, who performs the vast majority of the music and wrote most of the lyrics, present an attractively gloomy album with Never Again Will I Dream. There's echoes of the work of Black Tape for a Blue Girl; like that band's Sam Rosenthal, Emmer works with other artists to flesh out his own vision, letting others sing for him. Emmer's voices on this album are Holly Emmer and Hugues Dammerie; the former has an attractive, intoxicating approach similar to Faith & Disease's Dara Rosenwasser, while Dammerie's work is equally dreamy yet impassioned, a fine male counterpart. Dammerie also adds some flute here and there as well; on "Untitled #18," his keening tone mournfully adds to the dark, collapsing flow of the music and his own singing. As for Emmer's own music, piano and keyboards lead the way along with various electronic textures and production touches, heavy echo creating a feeling of a pocket orchestra slowly drowning in deep water. The occasional drum machine creates a steady, often sepulchral pace, reminiscent of Lycia's slow death-marches if not quite so crushing. Once or twice the rhythms pick up -- thus the skittering, nervous touch of "Did We Ever Love at All?" -- but everything else about the music keeps to a stately beat, Dammerie on said tune also showing his ability to work Arabic singing styles into his approach. Other song titles confirm the overall air of black-clad romanticism -- "In Your Flesh Lies the Key," "And Now It's Gone," "The Hardest to Let Go." If Bleeding Like Mine provides no real surprise -- fans of the Projekt label and associated darkwave creators will find this fits in perfectly with their own general tastes -- Never Again Will I Dream is still thoroughly enjoyable, music for a dreamily dark night of the soul.