Les Tombeaux is an editor and music writer based in Majorca. His journalism has appeared in Drug Media, Beat Off, Fabulous Tasmanians and Vogel. He is currently working on the authorised biography of Davey Dreamnation.
Davey Dreamnation has stunned the music industry by releasing an EP’s worth of theme songs entitled, appropriately enough, Themes.
The opening track is ‘A Salute to “A Salute to Themes”‘, a barely-disguised tribute (in mono) to Johnny Hawksworth’s original ‘A Salute To Thames’, which used to play on Thames TV in the UK.
A YouTube clip featuring Johnny Hawksworth’s “A Salute To Thames”.
Next up, a real rarity and a treat for D/DN fans: an unreleased version of Davey’s theme song, originally recorded during the harrowing Islands In the Stream of Consciousness sessions in 2002.
Bearing all the hallmarks of a traditional “outtake”, the song is nevertheless highly collectable due to its massive wordplay and false innocence.
The third track is another unreleased gem, Davey’s first foray into the mind-boggling worlds of rap and hip-hop.
‘Dubbo Boy’ is an unacknowledged masterpiece, with some terrific production work by Davey’s some-time co-conspirator and Kevin Bacon lookalike DJ Admiral Tuna.
Next, something of a novelty: ‘Scaramouche’s Theme’ is, obviously, the signature tune of Davey’s friend and troublemaking llama, Scaramouche.
We’re not quite sure how this track ended up on the EP but sources close to Davey suggest it may well be because ‘Stung’s Theme’ had already been released on the Tribesco EP.
Not that that stopped Davey from including it again here.
Breaking with tradition, and with the terms of UNSC DDN1, Davey also refused to delete this EP on release, prompting further speculation that he had, at last, completely lost his marbles.
One of DNRC Records’ worst-kept secrets (not to mention its most made-up face) is the running gag known as Clint Bo Dean.
Bo Dean, whose musical influences could do with an update or three thousand, is a real muso’s muso, refusing to release recorded tracks in any format and only performing live when he is drunk enough to chuck.
Hence this rare 1980s style picture disk, featuring an interview with Stung and a couple of shots of Clint blowing his nose.
CBD, as he is known to his legionnaires, encapsulates all things poetic here, as he tackles the only song he’s ever really understood: Tina Turner’s “Private Dancer”. Somehow, Clint manages to fuse the spirit of Bachman Turner Overdrive with that of Michael J Fox as he appeared in The Secret of My Success.
Bold, brassy and quite possibly bonkers, Clint Bo Dean is every hair stylist’s nightmare.
What little hasn’t been said about this remarkable album is still best left unsaid.
Stung, New Zealand’s most talented flautist, pulls out all the corks on Dream of the Blue Pipe Cleaners, an epic statement of intent.
Unbelievably, this was his first album for DNRC Records and has sadly been relegated to the dustbin marked “Deleted”.
Nevertheless, it is worth looking back on this timid artist’s sporadic career, which sputtered to a halt somewhere between Australia and New Zealand, on a flight that was meant to be the start of his aborted “Nothing Like the Stung” Australasian tour, complete with come-back album, booked out shows in the Top End and a rumoured duet with Davey Dreamnation.
Tragically, a ticketing mix-up led to an altercation between the airline crew and Stung, whose seeing eye pony was refused a seat on the flight.
Flying blind, and in the absence of his good friend and collaborator, Stung decided to take his own life and was found in one of the aeroplane’s toilets with a Vicks inhaler jammed down his throat.
Thankfully, the cabin crew were able to revive him, but could not save his vocal cords, which were irrevocably damaged.
Stung has since earned his keep as a composer of soaring and uplifting theme songs for car commercials.
Listening to this moving and emotional album now, one hears echoes of Mead, Eyna and Scaramouche’s solo works.
Originally released in 2002 and now lovingly restored as part of the ongoing rehabilitation of DNRC Records, Davey Dreamnation’s long-awaited debut album, Islands in the Stream of Consciousness, is brimming with melody, technological sophistication, 120bpm drum beats, amazingly uplifting guitar solos and lyrics to kill for.
Comprising 10 tracks, the album was released on 24 August 2002 via the MP3.com.au streaming service. It was preceded by several digital promotional singles, including lead single ‘Hot Soup Girl‘ and the smash hit ‘Loveless‘. Owing to a technical jitch, however, the title track was not released until 29 August 2002.
On 1 October 2002 Dreamnation issued a press release claiming that Islands In the Stream of Consciousness had reached the coveted number 1 position on the MP3.com.au lo-fi charts, although Internet archives indicate that it only reached number 3. The album has come to be known as Davey Dreamnation’s masterpiece, with one critic calling it ‘incendiary’.
The front cover of the 2020 reissue of Islands In the Stream of Consciousness, based on a photo by Shaah Shahidh on Unsplash.
Islands in the Stream of Consciousness: track by track
The recording process for Islands In the Stream of Consciousness was fragmented, with different studios and recording equipment used for each track. The full album was mixed at the Camp Davey compound before its release. This section details the history and context of each track on the album, in the order in which they are listed.
1. Davium
Never one to shy away from controversy, Davey Dreamnation chose to begin his debut album with a track about a newly-discovered element. The fact that he was forced to delete the song after admitting that Davium does not actually exist is a testament to both his risk-taking and his superb political judgement.
2. Dim Stars
Sometimes referred to as ‘Dim Stars 3’, this track makes heavy use of reverb and backwards effects. With lyrics taken from an Internet search poem, and multi-layered vocal backing tracks, this is serious listening for anyone interested in the origins of the universe.
3. Friday Nation
An apparent ode to early closing times.
4. Guns of Davey
Often misinterpreted as an ode to Davey’s gym-pumped ‘guns’, this song also courted controversy for its barely disguised ripoff of the Clash’s ‘Guns of Brixton’.
5. Hot Soup Girl
The song that started everything for Davey Dreamnation, Hot Soup Girl rightly forms the centrepiece of Islands In the Stream of Consciousness, its unhinged whig-out towering over every other instrumental break between Tribesco and Camp Davey.
The back cover of the 2020 reissue of Islands In the Stream of Consciousness, which introduces the conceit that the album has two sides, despite never having been released on vinyl or cassette.
In a Previous Carnation
Loveless
Pixellate a Mouse
The Sprawl
Islands In the Stream of Consciousness
Reception for Islands In the Stream of Consciousness
Put simply, this album is the wasabi on the toast, the ice on the slope, a gem, a taster from one of the most obscure, erratic and quite probably brilliant minds of an entire generation.
Eyna
What more can be said about this remarkable album except that its title track embodies the fundamental principles of both Scientology and the United Nations? Incendiary.
Mead
Peace on earth and goodwill to all, including Dolly Parton, Mack Davis, Howard Jones, Nick Rhodes, Brian Wilson and all the other singer-songwriters not mentioned on this outstanding, uplifting and jubilant celebration of what it means to be a superstar dressed in a jumpsuit and leg warmers.
Davey Dreamnation again defied public expectations by releasing new music on a Saturday evening, returning from an inexplicable absence of form with a stunning new single entitled ‘Dim Stars’.
Signalling that his recent experimentation with drum machines (witness the Scaramouche and Free Quincey releases) had done Davey more good than harm, the single featured a divinely spacey rhythm section, swamped beneath the artist’s now familiar reverb trademark. Sources close to the rapidly evolving cartoon artist suggested that by releasing the new song, drawing heavily on Davey’s undergraduate idols Slowdive, Davey had given up all hope of making the transition to commercial success.
The song actually devolved from a poem composed using an Internet search engine. That being said, ‘Dim Stars’ is more properly characterised as an instrumental as it consists of seven or eight vocal tracks reversed, reverbed, buffed, rammed and spat out, accompanied by a half-arsed drum track and a five string guitar tuned to E.
Best listened to while performing an interpretative buto dance on crutches at the seaside. Add bird sounds to taste.
