Dreams are our safe space. They are places to process the most personal of emotions and to learn to cope with our private reality in whatever form our subconscious brain dictates. Often confusing, nonsensical, and terrifying all at once, dreams give a uniquely personal insight into our true selves. While no one can access them, in dreams we unknowingly lay bare our hopes, fears and desires, sometimes to the point where it rocks our waking identity.
The debut album from Norwegian electronic artist Sassy 009, Dreamer+, explores just how dreams, identity and memory intertwine. Broadly centring on a fictional figure who must navigate loss through their dreams, it is a bold and fascinating journey through the corridor between the conscious and the subconscious. All of which is explored through a dynamic blend of twitchy hyperpop, rumbling acid techno, and 1990s trip-hop.
Immediately kicking into gear with the low roar of a motorcycle engine, “Butterflies” is a bold and restless opener. Built around warped synths and twitchy beats, it soon turns into a multi-layered percussive beast. With its club-ready beats, glitch-pop chorus and Auto-Tuned vocals, it shares the same hyperpop DNA as Charli XCX while still occupying a space all of its own.
“Edges” similarly showcases her dynamic production as swirling synths give way to propulsive, trip-hop drumming. However, lyrically, it finds her lost in her own head as her fear and insecurities threaten to get the better of her. Tapping into that universal fear of sinking into irrelevance elevates the song to something more.
This self-doubt continues in “In the Snow”, where skeletal electronics find her pining for some stability whilst wanting to feel something new. Instrumental palate cleanser “RIP Time and Thought” rides a funk bass line before getting lost in the mist that becomes the title track. “Dreamer” feels so fragile it could break at any moment as her glassy vocals gracefully swim through the gently warping electronics.
While it’s easy to get lost in the dynamic production, it’s the intimacy of these songs that rewards multiple listens. “Sleepwalker’s Pendulum” feels almost heartbreakingly personal, exactly like peering into someone else’s dream. It sees BEA1991 adding to the nocturnal vibe with her floating vocals acting like a guide through a hidden realm.
The stunning “Someone” is comfortably the most electric track on the record. Propelled by throbbing breakbeats, it finds Sassy 009, breathlessly anticipating that first experience with someone on that dancefloor. You can feel the sexual hunger as she senses that the person she most desires is there, somewhere on the dancefloor, ready for her: “I need someone who gets it / Who gets it / Who gets me.”
The minimalist “Mirrors” finds her retreating into herself again as she struggles to recognise who she has become. Featuring the airy vocals of Yune Pinku, the song drifts and glides, carried by simple techno beats and Sassy’s twisting, Auto-Tuned vocals. The woozy “Tell Me” initially feels brighter before fracturing as the beats become grittier and Blood Orange‘s reverb-drenched vocals pull it into the shadows. “My Candle” roughs up the edges further as she adds industrial beats to the sinister, murky electronics.
All of these elements come together perfectly on the surefooted “Enemy”. With its rumbling beats and widescreen synths, it’s a pumping dancefloor filler with a dark heart. It feels like something of a release as it builds to its epic, almost cinematic peak. All of which makes the comedown of album closer “Ruins of a Lost Memory” all the more jarring, like stumbling out of a club into a church. It’s a stark piano ballad with Sassy’s naked vocals accepting that we, as human beings, are the product of our mistakes as much as our successes.
Dreamer+ is an ambitious and assured debut. Musically, Sassy 009 explores the fringes of electronic music, always ready to distort her sound should it become too predictable. For an album that is musically assured, it contains startlingly personal moments of fragility and self-doubt. These are the moments that really connect. Musically and thematically, she has created a constantly engaging album that will stay with the listener like fading images from a dream.