ALL MUSIC GUIDE (USA) 2005
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All Music Guide  2004/2005

Minimum to Exist

Crashing Dreams

Review

by Eugene Chadbourne

Jules Verne should have invented this instrumental rock combo, whose tracks have the positive energy of some kind of fantasy high-speed drilling vehicle providing an escape route from hell. Rock without vocals represents in some ways the purest artistry the genre has to offer, imploding the sex appeal of the front-line lead vocalist entirely and often leading to a commercial Hades as a result. Crashing Dreams seem to have a track about the very subject, entitled "What Do You Do Besides Looking Good?." This is one of 14 cuts on Minimum to Exist, the 2004 CD and LP, all of which were written by Fabrizio Steinbach, who plays guitar, bass, and organ as well on the tracks. It is a name worth lingering over and not just because it sounds auspicious. The Steinbach family combines an Italian mother with a German father; the twin sons — the other a drummer named Flavio Steinbach — are worth getting to know if only to eat the food their parents would hopefully prepare for the gathering. Putting aside concerns of the stomach for less vital musical considerations, the brothers and their musical project are fine and firmly in the tradition of brother bands. The family link inevitably results in visionary, inexplicable, creative sympathy, valuable in any style of music. To be recognizably rock & roll, instrumental music unfortunately must conform to norms which lack consistent fascination, to put it politely. Steinbach's creations chime and rub like glass or sticks tied to a tree, and at times are treated to absorbing additions including trumpet and an awesome Mellotron. The pieces could be said to suffer from similarity, but this would really depend totally on the listener's interests. To speak vaguely on that subject, this seems more like party music than the deep listening variety.

Artist:  Crashing Dreams
Album: Minimum to Exist
Rating:    Sterne02
Release Date:      2004  Recording Date:  2004 
Label:   Indigo
              
Genre: 
Rock            

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