Picture it: Lessines, Belgium, mid-1980s. The once-vibrant city that saw the birth of surrealist artists such as René Magritte and Louis Scutenaire had crumbled into a musical desert. Three friends decided to create a band comprised of voice, bass guitar, and analogue synths, welcoming two more into the fold soon afterward.
Calling themselves The Ultimate Dreamers, the group were influenced by Belgian coldwave and British post-punk music, but the teenagers forged their own paths. Between 1986 and 1990, they wrote and self-recorded numerous tracks at home before calling it quits. The band’s frigid, organic tones and melancholy melodies (often verging on the dissonant) serve as a backdrop for themes of raw dreams, distressed love, and social criticism. The result is reminiscent of The Neon Judgement, Section 25, Minimal Compact, and Trisomie 21.
Thirty years on, the recordings resurfaced during the Covid era, and they were brought to the ear of one Dimitri: the record label magnate behind Wool-E Discs. An album deal was immediately offered to the long-defunct band. The Ultimate Dreamers have been resurrected, including three original members and a new inductee, exhuming, resuscitating and enriching their repertoire with new creations. After selection and mastering, 11 tracks became Live Happily While Waiting For Death, out today.
“I Love You?!”, the first single off the album, is a highly catchy and strange minimal synth and post-punk track. The video clip for the song takes imagery from the cult sexploitation film Olga’s House of Shame.
Watch below:
Live Happily While Waiting For Death is out on October 1, 2021.
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