There's such a range of sounds on the new Tony Jay cassette that even those of us familiar with previous releases should be pleasantly surprised. Called Knife is But a Dream, the cassette is a co-release from Galaxy Train (Japan), Paisley Shirt Records, and Slumberland Records. It was mastered by Andy Pastalaniec (Seablite, Chime School). And it's up on Bandcamp now as well.
I hate the term dream pop as it usually refers to something that is aspiring to be ethereal. This, however, is what dream pop really is. The music of Tony Jay on this tape sounds like a song you heard in a dream and can sort of remember in the morning. And I mean that in the best way possible. The gentle "Something Kind" warps into the abrasive "Cool Beat", a proto-industrial bit of grind, even as the title cut takes us back into the land of a half-heard lullaby. Tony Jay conjures up a dream-like mood here as gauzy and sleepy as it is specifically wonderful. The tunes peek out from the shadows and not one of them seems overdone or overthought. I'm sure a lot of work goes into the making of something that appears this casual and off-hand.
Knife is But a Dream is a mood. It conveys through suggestions of other styles, and flashes of folk and ambient something fleeting and just out of reach. In its effortlessness of presentation, it serves up a vibe all unto itself. I really love how each Tony Jay release I've heard has felt like a world of its own. I can sort of hear hints here of things I liked in the past, but more often than not, it feels like the music of Tony Jay is like hearing a dub of something cool playing on a tape deck in another room. Given that, Knife is But a Dream has a certain fascinating, borderline hypnotic quality that I can't hear from many other contemporary musicians.
Details on this Knife is But a Dream by Tony Jay via the Bandcamp link.
[Photo: Diem Vo]