Follow Dead Melodies to the Sleepy Town of Winter

Inspiration can hit an artist in the most unlikely of scenarios, and this inspiration can send an artist’s imagination careening forward in an uncontrollable fervor, the end results offering an oeuvre of unforeseen yet brilliant nexus of inspired creativity. Often this creativity is not randomly forged, but cultivated over years of seemingly obsequious patterns of events - types and shadows - that only later manifest themselves. This can be said of the new Dead Melodies album, Sleepy Town of Winter, an avantgarde noir jazz dark ambient soundscape that releases later this month on the Dead Melodies Bandcamp page.

I have praised the composer’s talent on several occasions, as over the past several years, I have had the privilege of reviewing Tom Moore’s releases, specifically through the Cryo Chamber label, and I have also had the appreciation of hearing his maturation and evolution as an artist, and Sleepy Town of Winter is not a ground-breaking, genre-defining artistic coup-de-grace - nor was it meant to be - rather, it is seemingly a comfortable return to form for the artist, much akin to easing back into a comfortable pair of shoes after wearing a different pair for while. 

Dead Melodies is marked by the brilliant use of sound design and field recordings, but also the use of story narrative, and how each album is a fresh, new tale given to the listener, with subtle cues and narrative gestures, but ultimately allowing the listener to create their own story through the use of oblique description and precis. Sleepy Town of Winter both continues a previous narrative, as well as carries that oblique story arc with it, being both a sequel as well as an all-new story. It is a measured continuance of the Murken Hollow storyline given to us in November of 2022, a dreamy, lackadaisical meandering of sound design and smooth jazz over a noir, almost horror-adjacent backdrop. The best way I would describe this particular style of Dead Melodies is a noir soundtrack inspired by the darker moments of films from David Lynch (Blue Velvet, Lost Highway) and David Fincher (Seven), or even mood of the video game, Silent Hill (specifically Silent Hill 2).

Murken Hollow was an audio snapshot of a world-weary detective dying slowly via fluorescent lights in his run-down police station, in a nameless, soulless, rain-drenched city. It was a brilliant mental evocation of a particular noir mood that is easier to see in the mind’s eye than it is to describe in words, short of mentioning films and video games (of which I am guilty -  see the previous paragraph). Murken Hollow also began a story in media res of the detective investigating ten recent murders, all with the same peculiar modus operandi, and each body in possession of a ticket stub to a place known as Murken Hollow. Sleepy Town of Winter picks up five years later, with the detective still ruminating on the events that took place in that town. Dread, misgivings, or even regret? This is the type of oblique narrative that Dead Melodies leaves to the listener’s discretion as the tracks meander in their nonchalant manner. 

These are not heavy-handed musings of strict cadence and rhythm, rather deliberate musical subtleties that help convey a mood, an atmosphere; again, rather than tell you the story, Dead Melodies prefers to give you the pieces of the world and story, and allows your imagination to create its own preferred tale. Slight, brushed drums play over beds of warm synths and subtle saxophone refrains, never relying succinctly on any noticeable structure or strict time concerns.

The sound design and mixing are exemplary, as always, with each subtle instrument and part weaving and cooperating with the other parts to create a gentle blanket of sound and ambience. A saxophone lead returns, as well, contributed by Zenjungle, as well as vocals from Kim Guy in another track. If you are a fan of Dead Melodies (and as a fan of this style of music, you should be), you certainly need to hear Sleepy Town of Winter, and if you are new to the genre, this is an excellent introduction to the scene. Sleepy Town of Winter releases on the Dead Melodies Bandcamp page on January 30, 2023, and you can find other Dead Melodies releases on the Cryo Chamber Bandcamp page here.