Field Division

Dark Matter Dreams Field Division

Four years on from the sumptuous dream-folk of their 2014 EP 'Reverie State', the Des Moines couple flex all their lung-power on their debut album, 'Dark Matter Dreams'. Written on the road, where the duo has been living even when not touring, it's a sweeping album with rock vigour and the spark of deeply held convictions, nurtured in the face of widespread modern disillusionment. Vintage influences include Fleetwood Mac, Led Zeppelin, George Harrison, The Beatles, and the 1960s/1970s Laurel Canyon scene, but make no mistake: this is an album that lives and breathes for today. As the duo explain, "Our goal with 'Dark Matter Dreams' was to retain the raw beauty and dynamics that were captured on 'Reverie State', but to expand on a more driving, forward-moving feeling in the music. The energy of a live band was something we wanted to capture." That mission is honoured as soon as opening track 'River in Reverse' surges forward, guitars flickering like headlights in the night as Taylor explores light and dark dualities and lays out a mission statement in a luminous vocal. "Let's transcend it all," she sings, seeding a theme the duo will return to.

Instrumental figures included an array of guests, there to flesh out the album's lustrous soundscapes on synths, strings, pedal-steel guitar and more. Their number included drummer and co-producer Mckenzie Smith, whose band Midlake stand tall among Field Division's modern influences (see also Fleet Foxes, Father John Misty, Slowdive and Radiohead) and in whose Denton, Texas, studio Evelyn Taylor and Nicholas Frampton began re-recording the album.

[Watch 'Farthest Moon' here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4VRba0qvUg)