Unarguably, one of the most ambitious albums to come out of the Indian sub-continent in recent times, Pune-based act Dreamhour has finally released his highly anticipated debut album, ‘VLLNS‘. Lesser known as Debo Sanyal, the rising star’s latest body of work has been in the works since last year. And rightfully so, it certainly sounds like an absolute masterstroke. Built around an equally stunning visual storyline that has been drawn up by Visual Amnesia (Reuben Bhattacharya), the 10-track LP takes listeners on a memorable journey that is wrapped around layers of glorious synthwave and retrowave.
Taking cues from some of India’s biggest and baddest pop culture icons, ‘VLLNS‘ brings together vintage, yet futuristic sounds of the past and present to provide us with the soundtrack of Debo’s very own world. “A megacity ruled by a vampire cult. Two outcasts against them all.” as the LP’s description suggests, it is a thrilling ride which sees Debo and Reuben create an audio-visual masterpiece which is ought to capture the attention of many.
Highlighted by its retro-inspired synthwave style, the LP maintains a core sound throughout its proceedings besides playing around with a heavy amount of guitar solos and even a hefty load of 1980s styled drums and synths. Boasting of some brilliant standout efforts including cuts like ‘Blood Patrol‘, ‘Cerebral Chase‘, ‘Eat. Saul. Riot.‘, ‘Heart This‘ and ‘Shobdohin‘, ‘VLLNS” list of collaborators consist of Paddy (Powernerd), Moses Kaul (Kraken) and Austrian guitarist Philipp-Johann D’Atri.
Out now via NewRetroWave Records, listen to ‘VLLNS‘ below. You can grab your copy here.