Deaf Joe - From The Heights Of A Dream

From The Heights Of A Dream is the second full- length offering from Waterford’s Deaf Joe. It’s a record bursting with ideas, some fiendishly inventive, others downright odd. Featuring material first written and demoed in 2010, during a period when the songwriter found himself housebound thanks to a big freeze, a feeling of claustrophobia infects the music.

Static crackles and strange buzzings are used as percussion, with Joe peppering proceedings with haunting vocals and piano loops. It feels as if you’ve unwittingly intercepted a broadcast from some unusual but eerily familiar land. Opening with the magnetic, slightly menacing ‘For Each & Everyone’, the material chronicles the journey of an individual who feels adrift in modern day Ireland. While some efforts are more engaging than others, the title-track and ‘In Search Of A Spark’ are absolute triumphs that perfectly mesh melody with fevered soundscapes and call to mind the unsettling, inspired work of composer Akira Yamaoka.

A bold and often interesting departure from his folksy debut Burrowings, From The Heights Of A Dream opens up a brave new world for Deaf Joe. Where his travels take him next?