Dreams Of Tall Buildings - Live At Cbso Centre 2001

  by Daniel Cressey

published: 28 / 3 / 2004

Label: Bearos
Format: CD

intro

"Gorgeous" abstract rock and live recording from Birmingham-based collective, which comes in especially beautiful and attractive packaging

This is probably the single most nicely packaged CD I have ever seen. The wonderfully understated hand-drawn box closes with a piece of cloth into which is stitched the band’s name. The whole thing is covered with brown paper and tied with string like an old fashioned parcel. The title is printed on a seperate label and the track listing has been written with a typewriter on a small piece of musical score paper and folded inside a tiny envelope. It would be a tragedy then if this was a style over substance record where the actual music was a huge disappointment and I am very happy to say it’s not. The sounds created by Dream of Tall Buildings actually fit perfectly with the retro, minimalist packaging – although as all the packaging is individually made other copies may come adorned with bright pink stars for all I know. This live set was recorded in 2001 at the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra practice space to what sounds like an audience of ten people. Thankfully now those of us who missed this gig can enjoy a wonderful set of pared down instrumental songs. The eight songs flow nearly seamlessly into one another for thirty odd minutes of gorgeous, abstract sound. Although it occasionally strays a bit, and starts to sound like a couple of guys banging frying pans, in general this is a great chilled out album, if a little short. Perhaps unsurprisingly it doesn’t totally live up to its packaging but to do that it would have to be inhumanly great. While it won’t be the best album released this year it is the perfect alternative to all those dreadful post-pub ‘chillout’ albums by the likes of Zero7 that seem to appear all the time. And how often do you get to hear a typewriter solo?

Track Listing:-