The Garden Dream

by Gglum

Overview

The Garden Dream is the full-length debut of gglum, the performance alias of London's Ella Smoker, a songwriter who started making home eight-track recordings in her teens inspired by alternative artists like Elliott Smith, the Microphones and Phil Elverum, Adrianne Lenker and Big Thief, and Alex G. Along with their intimate dispositions, she was drawn to the experimental tendencies and layered sonics of some of these acts (and others). Without sounding especially like any of the above, she stayed true to these descriptions on early EPs that landed her a deal with Secretly Canadian for her first album. It marks her second time working with a producer and first with Karma Kid. The 35-minute, 13-track set opens with an example of contrasting smallness and largeness in the form of "With You," whose strummed acoustic guitar and wispy vocal melody are eventually joined by electric strums and bass, then squeals of feedback, full drums, and a denser, keyboard-assisted wall of sound. All the while, Smoker serves up sweetly delivered, conditional reassurances like "I'm sick of your face/But I love it anyway." She continues to alternate sparer passages with lusher and blown-out sounds throughout The Garden Dream, as its short songs grapple with relationships, dreams, and nightmares. Along the way, the charming "Honeybee" is a solo demo replete with background activity, she embraces darker, grungier tones (and accordion) on the insecure "Eating Rust," and she approaches '90s alternative radio territory with the midtempo "Glue." Throughout its twists and turns and simple hooks, The Garden Dream sometimes seems like it's trying a little bit of everything, at least within certain design parameters, to see what clicks, while exceling at more sincere moments like "Pruning 2," which combines brittle vocals, arpeggiated acoustic guitar, light, ghostly shimmer, and thrumming bass, and the similarly textured duet "Do You See Me Different?" featuring London bedroom pop artist Kamal. This heterogeneity is not so far removed from someone like Alex G, so gglum may already be onto something, but taken alone, it feels like a taste of what's to come. ~ Marcy Donelson

Product Details

Release Date:	03/29/2024
Label:	SECRETLY CANADIAN
UPC:	0656605047720

Tracks

1. With You
2. Splat!
3. Late
4. Pruning 1
5. Pruning 2
6. Easy Fun
7. Glue
8. Second Best
9. He Laid His 97's Neatly by the Door
10. Honey Bee
11. Do You See Me Different?
12. Eating Rust
13. The Garden Dream

Album Credits

Performance Credits

gglum   Primary Artist
Samuel Knowles   Guitar,Synthesizer,Bass,Drums
Torin Umrigar   Vocals
Adam Kaye   Drums,Guitar
Jonah Summerfield   Bass,Guitar
Kamal.   Vocals
Josh Scarbrow   Synthesizer
Alex Headford   Bass,Guitar
Ella Smoker   Guitar,Vocals

Technical Credits

Samuel Knowles   Composer,Programming
Torin Umrigar   Composer
Hugo Simberg   Cover Image
Adam Kaye   Composer,Producer
Karma Kid   Engineer,Producer,Executive Producer
Jonah Summerfield   Composer,Producer
Kamal Prescod   Composer
Josh Scarbrow   Composer,Producer
Nick Scott   Art Direction
Alex Headford   Composer,Producer
Ella Smoker   Composer
Finnegan Travers   Photography
Leon Benson   Composer
Lilian Nuthell   Mixing Assistant
Nathan Bobby   Mixing,Mastering