(Creative Vibes)

A soundtrack for being strange

The Dreamer is an odd little piece of laptop rap apparently inspired by Sydneysider Mr Speed’s own dreams. No wonder they’re odd, they’re only inspired by eight hours of vivid hallucinating followed by near-total amnesia. The album begins with ominous warnings and manifestos, but they’re worth persevering through to get further up dreamland’s spine where talky, moody, headphones-on-in-the-bedroom songs lull you into a relaxed state only to be replaced by stumblethumping numbers perfect to wake up and dance to as You Should Be Dancing spells out. Several songs share Mr Speed’s verbal tic, a love for listing things – the kind of people who live in the city, things you should be doing instead of wasting your time, definitions of art and, in The World Song, 208 cities, states and countries listed alphabetically. Well, almost alphabetically, he does adjust them for flow. The word quirky was coined to describe things exactly like this and that is in no way a bad thing. The lyrics are clever, the subjects are diverse and so are the samples. However, unlike that other laptop rapper, MC Lars, Mister Speed doesn’t handily reference his samples for you. You will have to sort Captain Beefheart from the Muppets yourself.

***½

JODY MACGREGOR

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