Emerging from the shadows of chilly Ferndale, USA, the duo Until They Burn Me, comprising long-time collaborators Cody Carlyle and Travis Jordan, conjures a haunting, sonically immersive listening experience on their most recent album, A Carnival of Reveries. The nine tracks of music invite the listener to step into a dream world, teetering on the precipice between beauty and madness. In this place, the voices of dusty Americana collide with Gothic poetic lyricism, and the sounds of old ghosts hum beneath modern storytelling.
Founded in 2021, this version of Carlyle and Jordan's projects is new, but the duo's history as musicians spans over three decades, dating back to their former band, The Dry Season. This history furnishes the unmistakable spirit and chemistry within A Carnival of Reveries. The sound is not derived from imitation, but rather through tooling music revealed to them through a connection span of created resonance to the past, and intuitive trust as musicians. The pair makes a sonic landscape that encompasses an audible world, ranging from Americana, garage rock, punk, folk, and blues, all within the context of old-style murder ballads and gypsy-jazz ghost stories.
True to its name, A Carnival of Reveries is a surreal, intoxicating experience, both a celebration and a confessional. Each song unfolds like a vignette from an achy, old film reel. There's grit and grime in every guitar lick, a cinematic sense of place in every lyric. The duo conjures the voodoo mystique of New Orleans, the circus chaos of lost Americana, and the pulse of back-alley blues joints, all while being anchored in poetic reflection.
Tracks like" Night passage of painted dog" and "Dig them graves" shimmer with dark allure, mixing percussive drive and smoky harmonies that are both vintage and urgent. The record's production is deliberately organic, with imperfections that contribute to authenticity, rawness, humanity, and life. A recording that does not just play in the background but haunts.
What makes Until They Burn Me unique within today's make-belief, over-produced-perfection landscape is their willingness to lean into the theatrical storytelling interlaced with raw emotional truth. They are not trend chasers; they chase feeling. Their songs speak to the outsider and to everyone who dares to dream, or a drifter like myself, rooted in that old sepia-toned film, knowing that beauty exists in what is broken.
"A Carnival of Reveries" is not just an album; it's an immersive experience. It is the fogged carnival after the people have left, the neon light glowing in the rain, the few notes that harsh the last fade of melody. For those listeners who desire music that is gritty, poetic, and timeless, Until They Burn Me has been the first spark, and they will keep it lit until the very last.
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