Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Buffalo in New York State might be placed geographically at a disadvantage when it comes to attracting visitors with only a short time to spend between travelling the North Eastern states of the Union. Placed intriguingly at the head of the mighty Niagara River and with so much going for it in terms of the historic and the modern, it somehow arguably loses out between New York and people heading just a little further north to the wild abandonment of Niagara Falls.
The gateway stop for the Greyhound traveller as they explore the land of opportunity is one that many will not see beyond the bus station and its typical assortment of the weary, the odd pan handler and the smell in the air of the world famous wings. Yet like many other cities along that ridge that divides Canada and America that have been neglected over the years, first by Government and then by the traveller, the vision is still alive, it is the one sense of purity that beguiles, that the Lost and Found can be seen side by side in hope and that music, the art of the optimist and the soul bearing can bring people together.
For Dream Spectrum hope is the expectation, it is what their city perhaps represents as the traveller gets to the great river and lakes; the so called sophistication of New York and Boston far behind them, this is where the steel and the coke manufactured a living, jobs in desperate times, the place where production helped win a war and in which the Nickel is precious. Hope is always there in the eyes of the Lost and Found; you just have to look for it.
For a great Rock band that uses melody with great sympathy, that takes the senses along a road once inhabited by the sound of heavy machinery and the solitude afforded the end of the road stop, the use of only the instrumental is more than alluring, it speaks volumes on how music can deliver without the need for the lyrics to influence the direction of the thoughts of the listener. To implant your own narrative inside the well oiled machine is one of great faith and one that Sam Osmond, Todd Glosner, Alexander Braun and Jake Schoenle offer without impunity but with confident conviction.
In tracks such as Rip Off, Hit It, Waves and Different From The Same, the sense of early Floyd appears, not in the psychedelic fissure but one born form beautiful experimentation; it is perhaps fitting that such an instrumental album would appear in the 50th anniversary of Pink Floyd’s debut album.
Buffalo may be a town that loses out due to its close proximity to the admired Niagara Falls, a short bus drive away in American terms but, like Liverpool, it is a city that has seen the best and worst of times, of economic freedom and of despair in the eyes of some, yet in the Lost and Found there is hope and to dream it in any spectrum is a powerful ally to have.
Ian D. Hall