Feverdreamt – Melantant (CD Album – Blackjack Illuminist Records)
Genre/Influences: Electro, experimental, krautrock.
Background/Info: Feverdreamt is one of the numerous projects set up by Alexander Leonard Donat. He’s mainly recognized for his work under the Vlimmer moniker, but he’s also running the label Blackjack Illuminist. “Melantant” is the second album from Feverdreamt and has been inspired by a pure dystopian concept.
Content: The album is totally unique. It’s not really possible to define the style of music, but it clearly brings different influences together with on top a rather theatrical way of singing. It sometimes makes me think of the male version of Nina Hagen singing. Music-wise the tracks are driven by slow cadences or broken rhythms, the work have something minimal featuring cold electronic treatments. But I also noticed a kind of cabaret-approach and even a few songs in the final part reminding me of Von Magnet.
+ + + : The least I can say is that this is for sure the most original project and record I’ve been invited to hear by Alexander Leonard Donat. The global sound approach is worthy of examination and pretty original as well. I prefer some of the tracks in the last part of the work and especially refer to “Badj Zachfan”, “Fon Teyn La” and “A Yun”. The particular way of singing really matches with the creative sound approach.
– – – : I noticed a few cuts, which are a bit too experimental-minded for my taste (like “Saeuk”).
Conclusion: Feverdreamt resulted from a real creative process and makes me think of music, which would be perfectly fitting to some special live performances.
Best songs: to “Badj Zachfan”, “Fon Teyn La”, “A Yun”, “Parsque”.
Rate: (7½).
Artist: www.facebook.com/feverdreamt
Label: www.facebook.com/Blackjack.Illuminist
About Feverdreamt
Feverdreamt is one of several projects run by German musician, producer, label owner and visual artist Alexander Leonard Donat, who is best known for Vlimmer, the shoegaze-rooted project he started in 2015 after walking away from earlier bands that chased an audience rather than a sound. Donat comes from three generations of musicians; his father is a classical pianist and university teacher, and his grandfather was a well-known pianist in East Germany. Through his own label, Blackjack Illuminist Records, he released Vlimmer’s eighteen-part EP series between 2015 and its final installment at the end of 2020, alongside labelmates such as Verneblung, Distance Dealer and Feu Follet. In a 2021 Side-Line interview, Donat said of that pivot: “In 2015 I no longer tried to involve anything in my music that would please an audience, I simply made something that was 100% the music I wanted to make: a dark and bleak version of Shoegaze.” “Melantant” is Feverdreamt’s second album.
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I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.
