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original photo by © Jérôme Sevrette // "I jumped the van / ran the road to the river / we're dead / yeah, we're dead / and I won't reconsider / there's mountains between us / so now whose the genius / whatever..."
The art rock melancholia / balladic baroque pop lie detector of "Hollywood Signs", by singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist Kramies, stimulates your heart and head in brilliant magnetic ways. Emotionally explosive, sonically hallucinogenic and propelled by Kramies' evocative vocal countenance absolutely crystal clear, except for the occasional vocal bendy distortions that feel like memoric transmissions from the past, the sonic milleau here, to me, screams late 70's analog atmospheres, more Pink Floydian / Alan Parsons than contemporary. And while this might feel super strange, within this art rock / broad pop blend, I feel the songwriting depth, off-kilterness, melancholia, acerbia, candid bloodletting / catharsis of songwriters like Thom Yorke, Paul Simon and (collectively) Geoff Barrow, Beth Gibbons, and Adrian Utley so maybe aesthetically something is screaming at me, in bits and pieces, in emotional chemical mixes as an amalgam of Bends era Radiohead, Bookends era Simon and Garfunkel and Dummy era Portishead.
Yes, people, this is a stunner by anyone's definition and having reviewed Kramies' stunning 2022 eponymous album and chatting with / picking Kramies brain shortly afterward, the depth and surreal sweep of "Hollywood Signs" does not surprise me. This special track comes ahead of Kramies upcoming album "Goodbye Dreampop Troubadour" set to drop on October 10th of this year via VanGarrett Records.
You have gobsmacked me once again Kramies who, by the way, plays 90% of the instruments on this track.
Yes, people, this is a stunner by anyone's definition and having reviewed Kramies' stunning 2022 eponymous album and chatting with / picking Kramies brain shortly afterward, the depth and surreal sweep of "Hollywood Signs" does not surprise me. This special track comes ahead of Kramies upcoming album "Goodbye Dreampop Troubadour" set to drop on October 10th of this year via VanGarrett Records.
You have gobsmacked me once again Kramies who, by the way, plays 90% of the instruments on this track.
LINER NOTES ( excerpted / bracketed):
["Hollywood Signs" is the first single off Kramies' new Album which is out October 10th 2025.
Produced my Grammy Awarded, David Bowie producer Mario J McNulty.
As the summer scurry fades and autumn winds drift eastward, the days grow shorter and the lights dimmer - Kramies returns.
[Three years after his critically acclaimed self-titled LP—which earned multiple “Album of the Year” accolades and saw Billboard christen him The Dreampop Troubadour—Kramies pens a new chapter: a collection of songs steeped in wonder, drifting deeper into the otherworldly realms he’s come to inhabit. From that record, a new genre quietly emerged: Folklore Dreampop—a blend of dreamy textures, poetic myth, and spectral beauty.]
[With a career spanning almost fifteen years and a long string of releases that have earned him extraordinary accolades, Kramies has a knack for eerie and ethereal songwriting that has gained him the attention of NME, Clash, Billboard, NPR and the BBC and much more. His most recent self-titled LP made it onto seven “albums of the year” lists, with two of its singles featured in Top 10 radio charts. Under The Radar praised the album as possessing the “ethereal quality of a waking dreamscape”.]
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
https://soundcloud.com/kramies
https://kramies.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/kramies
https://www.facebook.com/kramies/
https://twitter.com/kramies
https://kramies.com/
Link to my (original) "Hotel in L.A." review:
https://www.americanpancake.com/2022/07/kramies-and-beautiful-opaque-bleakness.htmlLink to my Kramies You Tube Zoom Interview:https://www.youtube.com/watchv=maoyGiCdwAw&t=644s
Along with his critically acclaimed EP The Wooden Heart, as well as Of All The Places Been & Everything The End produced by Jason Lytle (Grandaddy), Todd Tobias (Guided by Voices) Jerry Becker (Train), Kramies has worked and performed with known artists such as Grandaddy, Clexico, and Spiritualized and many others. In 2021 Kramies teamed up with Patrick Carney of The Black Keys to produce his first Top 10 radio single "Days Of". By the beginning of 2022 Kramies had two top ten songs on college radio and is slated for his first highly anticipated LP in September of 2022.
With a career spanning almost fifteen years and a long string of releases that have earned him the title of “the dream-pop troubadour”, Kramies’ knack for eerie and ethereal songwriting has gained the attention of Billboard, Clash, NPR and the BBCamongst others, with his most recent single “Hotel in LA” being praised for its “ethereal quality of a waking dreamscape” by Under The Radar. Much of his success has come from his ability to be himself and stick to his clear artistic vision, and this new LP sees Kramies grow even more comfortable with his own unique way of working.
Pushing his craft as an outsider who has firmly forged his own path, the self-titled release is not just the next step for Kramies on his path as an artist, but an assured new beginning for him as a whole.
Along with his critically acclaimed EP The Wooden Heart, as well as Of All The Places Been & Everything The End produced by Jason Lytle (Grandaddy), Todd Tobias (Guided by Voices) Jerry Becker (Train), Kramies has worked and performed with known artists such as Grandaddy, Clexico, and Spiritualized and many others. In 2021 Kramies teamed up with Patrick Carney of The Black Keys to produce his first Top 10 radio single "Days Of". By the beginning of 2022 Kramies had two top ten songs on college radio and is slated for his first highly anticipated LP in September of 2022.
With a career spanning almost fifteen years and a long string of releases that have earned him the title of “the dream-pop troubadour”, Kramies’ knack for eerie and ethereal songwriting has gained the attention of Billboard, Clash, NPR and the BBCamongst others, with his most recent single “Hotel in LA” being praised for its “ethereal quality of a waking dreamscape” by Under The Radar. Much of his success has come from his ability to be himself and stick to his clear artistic vision, and this new LP sees Kramies grow even more comfortable with his own unique way of working.
Pushing his craft as an outsider who has firmly forged his own path, the self-titled release is not just the next step for Kramies on his path as an artist, but an assured new beginning for him as a whole.
art folk, art rock, avant pop, collaborator, folk indie, indie rock, Kramies, multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter, upcoming album, visionary, wordsmith, "Hollywood Signs" (Official Lyric Video),
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