On their 2023 compilation release Difficult Messages, Michigan noise institution Wolf Eyes worked with various like-minded peers to produce a series of relatively short pieces that explored fractured rhythms, abstract electronics, demented blues, and other sounds that erased the line between music and chaos. Dreams in Splattered Lines applies a similar approach to work made by just the core Wolf Eyes duo of John Olson and Nate Young. In the absence of collaborators, the album shines a spotlight on what happens within Olson and Young’s decades-tested chemistry when they distill their usually drawn-out murkiness into concentrated brevity. Each of the 13 pieces that make up Dreams in Splattered Lines takes slightly different routes, sometimes tapping into…
…familiar sounds from Wolf Eyes’ past and other times landing in places unexpected.
Tracks like “Find You (Vocal)” or “Plus Warning” bear some likenesses to earlier phases of the group’s sonic deconstruction, with misfiring drum machines serving as a deregulated pulse for minimal electronic harshness, Olson’s arsenal of homemade woodwind instruments, and Young’s signature sardonic vocal mutterings. Wolf Eyes all but created the concept of the noise banger and refined it to perfection in their Dread/Burned Mind era, so moments like “Days Decay” effortlessly achieve the same level of tension and caustic intensity the band created on those albums. Despite their mastery of this style, Wolf Eyes spend the majority of Dreams in Splattered Lines exploring ideas they haven’t attempted before. Young’s spoken delivery on “Exploding Time” is mixed loud and upfront, competing with ping-ponging rhythm tracks and receding blasts of electronic feedback. This more dynamic and insistent approach offsets the album’s free-floating moments with a driving force. “Pointerstare” is a warped sound collage where distant snippets of R&B radio fade in and out of a paper-thin tape loop, and the minimal “Comforts of the Mind” sounds like little more than static, pops, and the occasional drip of water.
The varying approaches continue the compilation aesthetic of Difficult Messages, and the fact that most of the pieces only last around three minutes or less means that no experiment wears out its welcome before a fresh one takes its place. Wolf Eyes’ excitement to engage in new modes of sonic brutality more than 25 years into their craft is what makes Dreams in Splattered Lines a standout release in their overwhelmingly deep discography. It’s a collection of surrealistic miniatures that are all the more confusing, humorous, head-spinning, and incredible for their intentionally concise construction.