Logo
DiS Needs You: Save our site »
  • Logo_home2
  • Records
  • In Depth
  • In Photos
  • Blog
  • Podcast
  • Search
  • Community
  • Records
  • In Depth
  • Blog
  • Community

THIS SITE HAS BEEN ARCHIVED AND CLOSED.

Please join the conversation over on our new forums »

If you really want to read this, try using The Internet Archive.

Douglas Dare

Whelm

Label: Erased Tapes Release Date: 12/05/2014

95444
SamWillis by Sam Willis May 8th, 2014

'The words that follow in this book explore; our apparent fascination for time and insatiable need for answers; the insupposable reactions we have to love and loss, empowerment and restriction; and through it all, nature’s unstoppable ruling of everything,' reads the foreword of a poem book entitled Nine Poems by Douglas Dare, which arrives inside the sleeve of the Londoner’s debut LP Whelm. Inside, as you might have guessed, are nine poems, all of which are central to the soul of Dare’s debut effort.

Along with the clean cut and muted cover of the album, the poems suggest a record with minimalistic approaches and songs that orbit around bringing sentience to their lyrics. The clues are there and Dare doesn’t disappoint with an album that offers nominal piano instrumentation and flitters of electronics – both used to punctuate the melancholic lyrics and vocals which take centre stage within the project.

The man himself is a singer-songwriter who has been impressing in a live setting and has managed to translate his lyrically focused musings onto wax with the help of producer/percussionist and fellow alliterative Fabian Prynn. The conception of Whelm to its conclusion took just shy of three months as the duo went from laying tracks at their home studio to recording at Flood’s Assault & Battery studios in west London. The move to the studio accentuates the clarity inherent in the record and allowed the pair to expand sonically on an idea nurtured solely by them from start to finish.

The tracks on Whelm are presented from the point of view of a third party, or inspired by events in history; they all hold in their murmurings grandiose stories and ideas, sung to a backdrop of aching piano. Album opener ‘Clockwork’, a track drawing influence from the Antikythera mechanism – an ancient analogue computer found within the Mediterranean – begins with fragile keyed pianos and subtle electronic punctuations. Within the track, and throughout the album, Dare resembles a stripped down, classically leaning James Blake – relishing in minimalism and with a penchant for beautifully written phrases: “Ruled by hands that point at the moments passed/Lived life behind the glass/Break it to breath at last” sighs Dare on the song.

‘Nile’ illustrates the extreme emotions humans go through as they fall in and out of love; the narrator exhibits a desperation to be loved by an unseen partner, Douglas sings in the refrain: “I’d sail down the river Nile/ Just to keep you alive and well”. ‘Caroline’ also centres on love and loss, where all that remains are “The letters that make up your name”. In ‘Unrest’ some studio time at Assault & Battery added sonic textures, as a Mini Moog toyed with by Dare at the studio is used as inspiration for the bass section, and chopped piano and electronics punctuate. Historic events are explored further with ‘London’s Rose’ and ‘Whitewash’ – the former is a poem written by Douglas about the use of underground stations as bomb shelters in WWII and the later addresses the Magdalene Laundries in Ireland, which would put promiscuous women and prostitutes to forced work during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Although some of the themes and content of the music may be a little heavy, Dare uses the most basic of tools available to him and us as humans to express himself – words. Shying away from complicated production and thick textures, Douglas Dare’s debut effort concentrates on foundations of song – the stories that they represent. If you’re looking for excitement then Dare is not your man, but his sung prose and poetry are encompassing if simple things are what matter to you.

![95444](http://dis.resized.images.s3.amazonaws.com/540x310/95444.jpeg)
  • 7
    Sam Willis's Score
Log-in to rate this record out of 10
Share on
   
Love DiS? Become a Patron of the site here »


LATEST


  • Why Music Journalism Matters in 2024


  • Drowned in Sound is back!


  • Drowned in Sound's 21 Favourite Albums of the Year: 2020


  • Drowned in Sound to return as a weekly newsletter


  • Lykke Li's Sadness Is A Blessing


  • Glastonbury 2019 preview playlist + ten alternative must sees



Left-arrow

9Bach

Tincian

Mobback
95443
95507

Lily Allen

Sheezus

Mobforward
Right-arrow


LATEST

    news


    Why Music Journalism Matters in 2024

  • 106145
  • news


    Drowned in Sound is back!

  • 106143

    news


    Drowned in Sound's 21 Favourite Albums of the Y...

  • 106141
  • news


    Drowned in Sound to return as a weekly newsletter

  • 106139

    Playlist


    Lykke Li's Sadness Is A Blessing

  • 106138
  • Festival Preview


    Glastonbury 2019 preview playlist + ten alterna...

  • 106137

    Interview


    A Different Kind Of Weird: dEUS on The Ideal Crash

  • 106136
  • Festival Review


    Way Out East: DiS Does Sharpe Festival 2019

  • 106135
MORE


    news


    The Neptune Music Prize 2016 - Vote Now

  • 103918
  • Takeover


    The Winner Takes It All

  • 50972

    Takeover


    10 Things To Not Expect Your Record Producer To...

  • 93724
  • review


    The Mars Volta - Deloused In The Comatorium

  • 4317

    review


    Sonic Youth - Nurse

  • 6044
  • feature


    New Emo Goth Danger? My Chemical Romance confro...

  • 89578

    feature


    DiS meets Justice

  • 27270
  • news


    Our Independent music filled alternative to New...

  • 104374
MORE

Drowned in Sound
  • DROWNED IN SOUND
  • HOME
  • SITE MAP
  • NEWS
  • IN DEPTH
  • IN PHOTOS
  • RECORDS
  • RECOMMENDED RECORDS
  • ALBUMS OF THE YEAR
  • FESTIVAL COVERAGE
  • COMMUNITY
  • MUSIC FORUM
  • SOCIAL BOARD
  • REPORT ERRORS
  • CONTACT US
  • JOIN OUR MAILING LIST
  • FOLLOW DiS
  • GOOGLE+
  • FACEBOOK
  • TWITTER
  • SHUFFLER
  • TUMBLR
  • YOUTUBE
  • RSS FEED
  • RSS EMAIL SUBSCRIBE
  • MISC
  • TERM OF USE
  • PRIVACY
  • ADVERTISING
  • OUR WIKIPEDIA
© 2000-2025 DROWNED IN SOUND