Canyons - Keep Your Dreams (Album)
» Canyons Tour Dates - November 24, 2011
Sydney based electronic duo Canyons have primarily been known as one of the cities best local DJ collective, until they decided spinning the decks wasn’t enough and playing with a full live band as well is where they want to be. Keep Your Dreams is Canyons’ debut LP release and encapsulates the energy of live performances, but retains the precision of a carefully crafted studio recording.
Canyons certainly aren’t a dance act by name, but their experimental boutique electronica certainly aids itself to the dance floor with consistent pulses and club rhythms. The early single ‘My Rescue’ is the one people are most likely to remember, mostly as it is one of the only tracks on Keep Your Dreams with a conventional verse-chorus-verse structure and the lyrics and melodies are rather catchy and fun.
There is an undeniable 80s synth-pop style included within a majority of the tracks on Keep Your Dreams, however it doesn’t have the atmosphere of a “retro” album. It’s the inclusions of obscure brass samples and syncopated rhythms that create an unusually modern sound.
Probably as a bit of a let down, Keep Your Dreams fails to grab the listeners’ attention. There aren’t too many catchy hooks or real amazing tracks individually. Experimentation can only go so far; as to feel more like sounds than music and fortunately, Canyons don’t push the innovation so far that it doesn’t sound enjoyable, but there is a point where they could’ve employed a few more traits from conventional pop music to make it a bit more involving.
When Canyons bring their new live sets to the nation, it shall certainly be an interesting experience, as to how they execute their beautiful strangeness. As a whole, Keep Your Dreams is a fairly strange record, with some really out there electronic experimentation, however the sound created, is somewhat original and although the music isn’t exactly made for repeated listening, it is a very cohesive and fairly enjoyable album from an informed perspective.
