ALBUM REVIEW: Enter the Mirage – The Sonic Dawn
As with all albums, there is a story behind the music of Enter the Mirage, the newest record from THE SONIC DAWN, and this one finds its roots in a troubadour front man’s simple desire to escape the mind-numbing shackles of careerism and the working world. Lucky, then, that this dude’s name is Emil Bureau. Bound as he is to perennially bear the most mundane of signifiers as a family name, in a quite beautiful and moving way, it was the loss of his father – the loss of his namesake – that provided the catalyst for this album.
Taking to a hideaway studio in Copenhagen, THE SONIC DAWN stitched together Enter the Mirage in a matter of months, undoubtedly shrouded in a haze of green smoke and incense sticks. In search of the ripest psychedelic cherries, they have clearly been picking their merry way through a rich garden of musical influence, but there is something found wanting amidst the fat spliffs and chilled vibes.
With Hits of Acid soaking in, we’re taken on a mildly adventurous trip of spiritual awakening. There is delicate lead line that brings to mind John Frusciante’s heroin-soaked Niandra LaDes and Usually Just a T-shirt, though we never quite reach such murky depths of chemically altered consciousness. Something in the confluence of this song’s soft parts is perhaps better described by Eels Mr E’s Beautiful Blues. By the end of the track, the lo-fi production draws slightly too much attention to the imbalanced vocal mixing, in which Bureau entreats us to “listen to hits of acid; float away on a rainbow”.
Having said this, the extremity of the album’s garage-vibe is a cool feature. At times invoking Hendrix, at others Gil Scott Heron, THE SONIC DAWN have certainly stayed true to a classic psychedelic course. They have capably delivered a trad psych album, but one that is destined to lie deep in the long shadows cast by records like THE BEATELS Magical Mystery Tour; THE DOORS majestic self titled debut, and countless others produced in 50 odd years since.
The track that does the most work to deliver on this psych aesthetic, however, is Join the Dead, possibly the highlight of the album. With jovial Hammond organ chords popping in and out of subtle conga flourishes, it showcases THE SONIC DAWN at their most capable. Towards the end, Sun Drifter invokes the 12-string jangling of a few Tim Buckley classics, whilst channelling early TAME IMPALA, just about cutting the mustard.
Peppered around the album are lines like “You need to relax man, smoke some weed and listen to some wax” and “Why don’t we go and get high, live life under a clear blue sky?”, both of which sort of sum up the conceptual frame-work of Enter The Mirage. It feels like a clarion call to all the washed-out stoners out there looking for a colourful place to belong. THE SONIC DAWN are going to be blowing many minds, but its hard not to be smiling by the end of the record.
Rating: 7/10
Enter the Mirage is out now via Heavy Psych Sounds.
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