'Agitprop Alterna' Review: Peel Dream Magazine meld languid dream-pop with driving post-punk in their 2nd album
Peel Dream Magazine are a relatively new band, but that hasn't stopped them from plumbing emotional depths and soaring to brand-new artistic heights with their second full-length album, 'Agitprop Alterna', which releases on April 3.
The band was officially launched in 2018, the brainchild of Joe Stevens, a New York-based musician and skilled DIY studio wizard. Peel Dream Magazine's debut 2018 album, 'Modern Meta Physic' was critically acclaimed when it first dropped - it was a masterful, abstract mix of psychedelic dabbling and sonic impressionism, and was by-and-large Stevens' tribute to the hazy end of 1990s-era dream-pop.
The record was even more notable for the fact that Stevens played all the parts on 'Modern Meta Physic' himself, blending live and sampled sounds to create an immersive bedroom pop experience.
After 18 months of live shows, numerous songwriting sessions, and a revolving cast of band members, Peel Dream Magazine have returned with 'Agitprop Alterna'.
Unlike his first album experience where he worked solo, this time Stevens collaborated with his close friend Kelly Winrich to develop new sounds for the project.
The duo created musical snippets over a series of sessions that Winrich would then mix and match into a cohesive whole. Live band members (like vocalist Jo-Anne Hyun - replaced now by Isabella Mingione - and drummer Brian Alvarez) would stop by and lay down their parts. The resulting Peel Dream Magazine music revels in its new-found gravitas: it's heavier, more dynamic, and truly the work of an ensemble rather than just one person pulling the strings.
'Agitprop Alterna' is an album that pushes the group’s initial dreamy, kraut-pop sound to a decidedly Sonic Youth meets Jesus and Mary Chain vibe - it's both deeply melodic and beautifully discordant in places.
This sophomore record primarily pays homage to the fuzzy, mod-flavored rock of acts like My Bloody Valentine and Stereolab on tracks like 'NYC Illuminati' and 'Eyeballs'... but it also tips its hat to outfits like Slowdive, The Velvet Underground, The Cranberries and The Breeders with its compositional choices, on tracks like 'Too Dumb', 'The Burtolt Brecht Society', 'Permanent Moral Crisis' and the spacey album closer 'Up and Up' (which is the perfect culmination to this trippy lo-fi album).
Thankfully, none of these myriad influences are overdone on this album, everything is tastefully seasoned with under-rug-swept minimalism. Besides the overdriven guitars and glossy synths, there are bleeps, bloops, drones, glissandos, and radio sample interludes, all filtered through a gauzy lens of post-punk meets dream-pop.
Besides the music itself, every song's message fits into a broader thematic whole that examines personal freedom from manipulation and misinformation.
The first single 'Pill' examines the human race's desire to consume - is it an addiction or merely self-medication for the pain of doubt, want and need?
Other tracks like 'Emotional Devotion Creator' cast a dubious, critical eye at the glitzy, propaganda machines of marketing and advertising, while 'It’s My Body' is an anthemic response to power trippers and egotistical people who want to exalt themselves by making you feel small.
Inspired by the Bertolt Brecht quote that "Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it," the band has realized that listening to art is an artistic experience in itself. Stevens’ and Hyun’s intertwined male-female vocals serve as an anchor, while you're left floating in limbo between languid dream states and driving sonic immediacy.
Peel Dream Magazine gives their audience ample space to carve out their own meaning amidst the wall of shimmering guitars, fuzzed-out synths, and humming organ drones. The album 'Agitprop Alterna' is a bold rejection of manipulation in all its forms and takes a buzzsaw to the head of complacency - it's a remarkable synthesis of vintage lo-fi sounds with highbrow artistic concepts.