Dreamback – Landscape

I’ve had a soft spot for Dreamback for a good while now. From the early promise of Escape through Asleep and Awake, Jamie Duddy has kept finding fresh ways to shape his songs while keeping the heart of the project intact. Now, when we come to this second album, Landscape, it feels like those earlier ideas have settled into something more assured. Jamie is still pulling from the worlds of shoegaze, post rock, ambient music and slowcore, yet the record has a gentler confidence about it. For those new to Dreamback, Jamie brings his wife Laura in with her beautiful voice giving  the album an added warmth too. You can hear that closeness in the way Laura’s voice appears throughout, never overplayed, always right where the music needs it.

There is a lovely honesty in the way Jamie has described these pieces as instinctive and immediate. You feel that from the start. This album plays as a seamless listening experience.

Let’s hit play and dive in.

‘Quiet’ begins in exactly the right place setting the tone with patience and restraint. Duddy lets the atmosphere gather around the guitars, dipping in and out. It’s an assured almost therapeutic start and you can feel the stress leave your body.

Laura’s voice welcomes us into ‘Indolamine’ next. You may have caught this one on my April DKFM show. I already had a lot of time for this amazing track, and within the flow of the album it feels even better placed. There is a little more urgency in it, a little more colour in the guitar sound, and it brings welcome movement after the hush of the opener. Dreamback have often found that sweet spot between dream pop softness and a rougher shoegaze edge, and this track sits right in it.

‘New Day’ has a new age feel to it. Duddy has long had a good ear for taking simple chord shapes and giving them emotional weight, and this feels like another example of that gift. The wash of the heavily reverbed guitar creates a luscious canvas to paint on. The music opens out here, as if a curtain has been pulled back just enough to let some light in,

By the time the title track arrives, Landscape has settled into its own character. ‘Landscape’ holds the centre of the record with quiet confidence. There is a steadiness to it, and I like the way Jamie keeps the arrangement open and uncluttered. It might just be my unconscious bias but this track has a very Scottish feel to its lead guitar line which I love.

‘Seratonin’ brings a slight change in energy. The title suggests chemical imbalance and emotional swings, and the music has that same flicker to it. There is a nervousness in the fuzzed-out guitar phrasing that keeps the song unsettled, and that unease gives the album a useful jolt at just the right moment.

Then comes ‘Mercury’, which feels moodier and more elusive. Dreamback have always been good at suggesting a mood with very little, and this is one of the clearest examples here. Jamie keeps the piece lean, Laura’s voice moves through it with great care, and fuzzy guitar lines give a nice counterbalance.

‘Shadows’ goes even further inward. At just over two minutes it could easily have felt slight, yet Jamie gives it shape and purpose. The song feels hushed, private, and a touch haunted, with the kind of home recorded closeness that suits Dreamback so well. You can almost hear the room around the instruments.

There is a lovely sense of late-night stillness to ‘Midnight Plus Two’. This is where the slowcore side of Dreamback comes nearest the surface, with every note given space to breathe. Laura’s vocal sounds extra deliberate, and that keeps the whole song suspended in a very delicate place.

‘Dash’ is a quick burst, and it is placed smartly in the running order. Constructed from reversed guitar parts it gives the second half of the album a flash of motion just when it needs it. Even in such a short space Jamie manages to say plenty, which has always been one of his real strengths.

After that quick turn, the beautiful ballad ‘Reflections’ slows the pulse again and feels like one of the emotional hinges of the record. Dreamback have often worked with memory, sleep, and blurred feeling, and this track gathers those ideas into something quietly affecting. The acoustic guitar work here is subline and a real highlight of the album.

One of my favourite turns on the album comes with ‘Saturday Morning’. After the midnight hues of the previous stretch, this feels warmer, gentler, and somehow more private. Knowing Jamie and Laura are making this music together gives the track an added sweetness, as if you are hearing the album step out of their dream space and into lived space, if only for a moment.

Whilst ‘Lullaby’ is over quickly, it really does leave a mark. The softness of Dreamback can sometimes hide how carefully these records are put together, and this song is a fine example of that touch. The arrangement is light as clouds, the feeling stays tender, and the result is one of the album’s most moving moments.

Closing on ‘Valentine’ feels right for an album made with this kind of care. There is affection in Dreamback’s music, and here it comes through in a way that feels truly heartfelt. To finish the record with a piece that feels intimate and complete is a small closing gesture that says everything it needs to.

What I enjoy most about Landscape is how settled it feels in Dreamback’s own language. Duddy has spent the last few releases trying different routes through dream pop, ambient texture, post rock space and understated song writing, and this album gathers those ideas into a set that feels personal from start to finish. Laura’s voice remains one of the quiet joys of the project, adding softness and human closeness without ever breaking the mood. You come away from Landscape feeling as though you have spent time somewhere carefully arranged, lived in, and full of feeling. By the end, Dreamback have changed the scenery around you.

Landscape is out now. You can check it out over on the Dreamback Bandcamp page.

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