Dog Island is a rather odd outfit — in the most likable of ways.
Background
From Orlando, Florida, the act came to be as a humble recording project. Everything is produced, composed, and recorded from home by Dave Hanson. You wouldn’t find it easy to nail down Dog Island to a particular genre — there are experimental elements, AM radio samples, ancient Casio keyboards, people talking backwards, and even toy noise makers involved.
At the heart of it all, Hanson considers his music to be “adventure songs.” He goes on:
“There’s a drum in the passenger seat and a strange rattling noise coming from somewhere in the trunk. A breezy melody can be heard floating out of the driver side window. There’s an elbow patched with flannel drumming on the car door and an array of colored soaps that have made a map on the rear windshield. It’s washed away where the wipers hit, but the X remains, as does the faith.”
Remember what we said about Dog Island being a weird outfit? We love it.
Thoughts
“El Dorado” was self-labeled by Hanson as ‘tropidelic psyfolk’. You’ll find no arguments to the contrary here. It’s a rather dense song, pulling close to the 6 minute mark. The vocals, when you get the chance to hear them closest to their unfiltered best, would have made a fine arrangement simply by themselves.
Coming together in the final stretch as incredibly abstract and mystic, the journey through Dog Island’s release is compelling. I hope to hear more.
