Published
The Dream House / Dedications To Flea
Early in 2005 Windy & Carl were persuaded by a friend to release a handmade CD-R to launch the small-run Brainwashed Handmade label. Their inspiration for the new project was the recent death of Flea, the dog they had cared for together for 14 years. This release pairs a reissue of Dedications to a Flea with a second album of new material called Dream House. Flea is pictured on the record sleeve and Windy tells the dog’s story with a staggering amount of detail on the booklet inside. A thousand-word essay about a beloved pet is a strange gesture for an album’s liner notes, sure, but coming from these two it seems a little less unusual.
Text aside, the music is a welcome return to form. Windy & Carl will probably never reach the focus achieved on their masterpiece, 1998’s Depths, but these two albums show they’re still able to build an effective atmosphere. This is long-form Windy & Carl with textural skill intact; four tracks stretch across two CDs and none of them seems in any particular hurry. “Ode to a Dog” has the peaceful, cloud-drift ambience that filled Consciousness, with Windy’s repeating bass pulse framing Carl’s sheets of sheer, light-catching feedback. “Sketch for Flea” pairs a “field recording” of Flea on a walk– complete with pants and the sound of rain on the sidewalk– with a more ominous rumble of guitar hum. The latter track is particularly striking, with the thrashings of the departed dog lending an unpredictable air to the patiently unfolding drone.