Steven Fleet is not playing dress-up in the graveyard of post-punk past – with Dream Bodies, he’s exhuming the corpse of darkwave and breathing lightning into its lungs. His debut EP, ‘Circle of Light’, is a five-track séance, a meticulously crafted descent into a sonic underworld where distortion bleeds into dreamscapes and every synth swell feels like a shiver up a phantom spine. This is dark alchemy, forged in the fires of Fleet’s road-tested soul.
Fleet’s no basement-dwelling novice. This dude’s road-tested, stage-hardened. He’s locked rhythms across continents with Magic Wands, VV and the Void, Night Nail, Boytronic, even toured with legends like The Chameleons. That sweat-and-stage-light intensity bleeds into every groove on ‘Circle of Light’. It’s a witch’s brew distilled from the gods: The Cure’s cavernous gloom, Clan of Xymox’s icy grandeur, Cocteau Twins’ ethereal shimmer, Joy Division/New Order’s driving pulse, Depeche Mode’s synth-hooks, Molchat Doma’s modern chill. BUT. Fleet isn’t just name-dropping. He’s exerting these influences like ritual daggers, carving his OWN sonic sigil into the void. This is reverence, not replication. Darkwave and post-punk with its freaking BOOTS ON, drenched in dream-pop atmosphere but never losing its rock-solid, gut-punch spine.
The EP is a five-track descent into a meticulously crafted underworld. Kicking off with the eerie, loopy instrumental ‘Blood Moon’, it immediately sets a tone of unsettling anticipation – like stepping into a fog-shrouded cathedral just before midnight. But it’s the title track, ‘Circle of Light’, that serves as the undeniable, mesmerising heart of the record. This is no average chorus-verse banger; it’s an incantatory fucking spiral. Built on a hush of atmosphere, whispered lyrics that feel like spells (more on those in a sec), and a hypnotic progression that drags you deeper like flickering candlelight leading down an endless corridor, it’s pure gothic grandeur. Fleet’s vocals here are a restrained power – a calm urgency riding a tidal wave of swirling synths and echo-drenched guitar lines that somehow nail the epic scale of early goth and the intimate, heady vibes of 80s dream-pop simultaneously. The lyrics are just pure occult poetry, painting vivid pictures of kneeling within that titular circle, “Death on your left and life on your right,” cosmic energy uncoiling “up your spine,” leading to a meeting with oneself and a flight “outside of space and time.” It’s esoteric as hell, yeah, but authentic, belief system be damned. This track is the liminal space it describes.
But ‘Circle of Light’ isn’t a one-spell wonder. The previously released singles hold their own weight and then some within this shadowy mix. ‘Don’t Look Back’ is a pulsing phantom heartbeat. Distorted transmissions from a regret-laden past. Pure coldwave propulsion for the darkest dancefloor corner. ‘Dream Hangover’ absolutely lives up to its name – a narcotic haze of smeared melodies and textures thick as sonic fog. Disorienting, yet perversely comforting. The sound of waking into a lingering nightmare. ‘Eclipse’ stands as the EP’s rhythmic adrenaline shot—krautrock-infused gothic rock. Proof Dream Bodies can lock into a killer groove without sacrificing an ounce of sacred atmosphere. Momentum meets the abyss.
What truly elevates ‘Circle of Light’ from a cool collection of tracks to an essential dark-rock experience is its unwavering commitment to the in-between. This EP exists firmly in the liminal zone – between dreams and waking memory, between dusk and dawn, between life and fucking death itself. These songs aren’t handing you tidy narratives on a plate; they’re conjuring rooms. Rooms filled with half-remembered feelings, lingering moods, and ghosts you didn’t even realise were still rattling around your psyche. It’s music that demands immersion. Don’t expect to just casually tap your foot; Dream Bodies invites you to step inside the circle, kneel in the dark, and listen. Really listen. It’s an invitation to feel that shiver up your spine, to get lost in the fog of sound. As Dream Bodies’ sole architect, Fleet is witch, blacksmith, and vibe-lord. He makes the esoteric feel intimate, the haunting feel personal.
In a scene drowning in pale imitators, Dream Bodies emerges FULLY FORMED AND POTENT AS HELL. ‘Circle of Light’ is a STUNNING debut. A dark, atmospheric rock record with depth, MYSTERY, and a beating (shadowy) heart. Past influences resurrected, transmuted, REBORN. If you crave the spaces where light fractures into shadow, where melody stares into the abyss… Dream Bodies isn’t playing music. THEY’RE SUMMONING. This is the real dark deal.