Trance Farmers

Dixie Crystals 

I’m a fan of the creepy. The kind that starts serene and ends scary, the get under-your-skin type scary. Think The Shining over Saw. Or, better yet, think Blue Velvet.

Trance Farmers' Dixie Crystals invokes desolate landscapes. This could be a soundtrack to a future Lynchian road movie, featuring rundown shacks, dusty roadside bars, and dark clouds rolling over barren landscapes. 

Songs sound like a bad trip at the sock hop —50s doo-wop grooves suffused with delayed guitar lines, heavily distant drumming, and semi-comatose singing that still remains heartfelt. 

“Friends” and “Dream Train” bring in Britpop melodies. “Fume” sounds ethereally backwoods. Dayve Saymek’s vocals are chameleonic throughout: on “Betty Bop” he adopts a Cramps-like warble, while on “Whiteout” he resembles Nick Cave’s demonic cousin. 

I hope Trance Farmers' relocation heralds a leap forward in the new New Orleans sound—creepy, like this town can be, but ultimately uplifting.