Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
The Long Vivid Dream opens up before the listener as if it were the prelude to an awakening, the moment where the mind is unawares of whether it is still in the hands of Morpheus or wit has somehow fallen for the charms of the dramatic day ahead, the crystal clear clarity that comes with the walk through Hell or the gamble of seeing Heaven. The Long Vivid Dream is such that its powerful feeling of melancholy is overwhelmingly familiar, especially to those that have held hands with the vision that their dream visits upon.
Montreal’s Discolor Blind is an E.P. that brings out the very best in the maxim of attention to detail, that the sense of the five tracks are there to flow as any dream should, not fractured or broken by the period of constant waking, but a steady stream of unconscious thought, one navigated with emerging soul, one that only asks of the listener to go with it, to make the very best of the time in someone else’s domain.
By allowing the flow between the five songs, the listener finds that there is both hope and promise to be found and melancholy to be savoured, a union that is startling and emancipating. It is in that union that lyric writer and full spirited force Ashkan Malayeri is obviously honoured to present, a sense of wonder in a soul that has enjoyed roaming the world, which has noted in each step taken along the way, something beautiful, a moment to treasure and share.
Alongside Alexis Nadeau’s vocals, Jeff Bass on synth and drums, Michael Spleit’s disarmingly cool cello on three of the tracks, Eric Maillet, Arthur Zoch and Kelly Graig, Ashkan Malayeri has brought about a set of songs that are finely balanced and graceful in every department envisaged.
From the opening instrumental of Migraine, through The Life of Lily, What Pain Brings, Black and Grey and the finale of Poor Receipts, Montreal’s ever increasing sense of music passion is once again given life, a sense of the real and determined, the Long Vivid Dream is one to immerse yourself in.
Ian D. Hall