In The Pines - Sunbeam Dream In The Pines

Cincinnati psych-rockers return with their fourth album and turn the textural synths and spaced-out melodies all the way up to make their most Shoegaze-heavy record yet.
In The Pines’ central nervous system is located in The Lodge—an old Masonic temple repurposed as a multi-use space across the river from Cincinnati in Dayton, KY. The group occupy a corner of the basement in this sprawling labyrinth where they run and operate Foleytronics—a boutique vintage pro audio repair shop, and one of a handful of like-minded shops in the world that can operate on and repair vintage digital effects.
A natural byproduct of this shop is their studio in bandmate Peter Foley’s basement, a room full of various vintage effects, tape machines, and synthesizers, where they recorded and produced Sunbeam Dream in its entirety. All of the recording equipment used on Sunbeam Dream was salvaged from certain doom, repaired, and brought back into working order by the band themselves, who went into recording fully aware of (and excited to exploit) the limitations of these devices. Much like the concept of Oulipo in poetry and mathematics, creativity and problem-solving flow from a clear understanding and constant testing of their limits.
The recording process allowed In the Pines to obsess over the minutiae for the first time—entire days spent on finding the correct acoustic guitar sound only to land on a piece of Scotch tape spread across the strings; hours that would be considered a luxury in other studios focused on trying out various cymbal combinations for a chorus or bridge. Just like they did with their repair shop, the band created a recording space where hyperfocus and attention to detail are not only allowed, but fully embraced.
The result of this obsessive level of control is In The Pines' most accomplished work to date. Sunbeam Dream takes the band’s shoegaze-informed psych rock and raises the bar. With a heavier emphasis on synths moving from a textural element to a main character in the band’s sound (courtesy of a 1971 resuscitated Mellotron), the band stakes a claim in the lineage of the grandeur and grit of albums like The Verve’s A Northern Soul or The Charlatans (UK) self-titled album, where both bands’ production seemed to match their creative vision.
With Sunbeam Dream, everything feels both brighter, crisper, while at the same time delightfully swimming in a twilight haze that surrounds each element.